Defiant Toward In-House Critics
Toussaint Comes Out Swinging

By GINGER ADAMS OTIS

Transport Workers' Union Local 100 President Roger Toussaint, still battling for a contract 10 months after leading a three-day strike that sent him to jail and cost the union millions of dollars in penalties and fines, firmly believes he can satisfy his members' needs on that score if they give him a third term.

The Chief-Leader/Michel Friang READY TO RUMBLE: Transport Workers' Union Local 100 President Roger Toussaint says that while his political opponents are seeking immediate and short-term gains' for union members, he has 'invested in the future health of the organization.' Those who say he is intolerant of dissent, he contended, are ignoring union by-laws that give him clear authority over the union's business.

In a lengthy interview Sept. 27, Mr. Toussaint detailed his campaign slate and platform, stressing his years of experience and "proven history of improvements" for Local 100's active and retired members.

Members have to differentiate between candidates who worked for the labor movement, and those who served their own personal agendas, he said.

'Thinking Long-Term'

"Our administration has consistently tried to put transit workers on a high road - we've delivered contracts that protect the long-term interests of transit workers," Mr. Toussaint contended. "We have invested in the future health of the organization, versus others who want only immediate and short-term gains. We've appealed to the intelligence of transit workers and their sense of trade unionism, instead of their anger or their disappointments, or the purely tribal instincts of playing one division against another."

Mr. Toussaint's slate includes incumbent Secretary-Treasurer Ed Watt and Recording Secretary Darlyne Lawson. In coming days he will reveal the rest of its departmental candidates. Mr. Toussaint said a formal date for his re-election campaign launch hasn't been set, but he promised a full ballot for every division.

"We are the only slate that has two women in top positions, and the only slate to have a woman running in the top three," he observed. "Our administration won maternity pay and child care for our members, we fought to eliminate the minimum wage for new entry-level hires - who are disproportionately young women these days - and got them standard wage progression, and we have more than a dozen women on the executive board, and I created a women's caucus. We are committed to all measures of full participation instead of promises."

Three challengers to his leadership have already surfaced. Conductor Michael Carrube is running independently; Barry Roberts of the union's Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority Division heads Rail and Bus United; and long-time foe Ainsley Stewart is leading the Union Democracy slate.

Mr. Stewart and his team have been among Mr. Toussaint's most vocal critics. They spearheaded a "Vote No" campaign on the post-strike contract deal that included 10.5-percent raises over three years, maternity stipends, an additional paid holiday, increased assault pay for Conductor and Operator titles and a sizable pension refund for nearly two-thirds of the union's membership.

1.5-Percent Controversy

It also included a 1.5 percent contribution of gross earnings toward health-care costs, a concession agreed to by Mr. Toussaint after the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, to help end a three-day strike that paralyzed the city just before Christmas, pulled its demand for a new pension tier for future hires off the table.

Mr. Toussaint maintained that the 1.5-percent giveback was offset by wage increases and other benefit gains, including extending health-care coverage to members who were without benefits if they retired before age 65.

With the "political establishment of this town" determined to break the union, he said, his administration has over the past two terms cut down on waste and rooted out corruption within the local, gotten guaranteed health benefits for workers, held mass meetings for the members - including general membership meetings called for the first time in 30 years - established an apprenticeship program for incumbent transit workers, and instituted a program of training that's resulted in hundreds of shop stewards being placed in the field.

In response to accusations from some of his former New Directions slate members that he's "dictatorial," Mr. Toussaint said simply: "How is it that I've been elected by 60 percent of the membership and yet this minority group of dissidents says I'm not entitled to lead?"

Fights 'Dictator' Label

He continued, "Why is it that a minority of 10 or 12 people on the executive board think that the board should reflect their decisions and only their decisions? They have consistently lost executive board votes, but instead of honoring the majority voice - and isn't that what democracy is? - they turn around and say, 'Roger controls the board.'"

Another frequent criticism of Mr. Toussaint is that he has ignored the union's bylaws, particularly when it comes to appointing people to paid staff positions.

Asked about that charge, Mr. Toussaint produced a booklet of the Local 100 bylaws and turned to the page defining the duties of vice presidents. "[They shall assist] the president in the discharge of his duties, to such an extent as the president shall determine," he said, reading the one-line description.

"Who is really violating the bylaws, by that definition?" he asked.

A Matter of Race?

He also pointed out a line in the definition of the president's duties that says "the president shall have the authority to appoint, direct, suspend, or remove such employees as he may deem necessary, and shall fix their compensation."

Mr. Toussaint said the objections to his exerting authority "wouldn't be as intense and vile if I were white and speaking without an accent."

Since the contract was rejected in January by seven votes, Mr. Toussaint said, his administration had organized a re-vote, held numerous actions around the city, waged a public-relations war with the MTA over acceptance of the deal, fought against Taylor Law fines and the loss of automatic dues check-off rights in court, held a massive march across the Brooklyn Bridge, served time in jail and begun arbitration hearings with a Public Employment Relations Board panel.

The union also sold its building on the West Side, worth an estimated $39 million, for $60 million to an unnamed developer. The union has five years to find itself a new home, which Mr. Toussaint contends must be larger and better equipped to handle the growing membership. He also plans to use the sale money to improve the computer systems used to run Local 100's health and benefits programs, and to provide additional training for members on new technology.

Banking on Dues

In preparation for the loss of automatic dues check-off rights, which will begin next June, the union's set up an online banking system on its Web site which allows members to sign up for automatic withdrawals from their banking accounts. Dues can be paid bi-weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annually or annually.

Those who pay the year's fees in advance will get a pin welcoming them to the "Mike Quill Club," and those who are registered for automatic withdrawals will get a pin saying "100% Union." Other incentives are being developed to foster active union participation, Mr. Toussaint said, so that members are prepared for a slow roll-out of online dues payment in 2007. "We're going to start with 5,000 members in January, another 5,000 in February, and so on," he said. "The goal is to have it done completely by June."

Beyond that, he said, his administration will continue to tackle the most pressing issues for transit workers in the field - problems with the disciplinary system, supervisor abuse of "chronic absenteeism" and the implementation of new technologies that threaten public and worker safety. Many of those issues will come up in the 2008 contract, which his administration has already begun to prepare for.

"Our campaign is to get the members a contract, and before that our campaign was to negotiate a contract and a strike," he said. "These opponents have been doing something entirely different - they have not been on this mission. I can list in detail everything we're doing to service the members. Let [my opponents] explain what they've been doing."

Ballots for Local 100's elections are expected to be mailed to members in late November and returned in mid-December.