Toussaint Makes Appeal
'Fine' Art Used To Pay TWU Penalties

By GINGER ADAMS OTIS

Transport Workers' Union Local 100 kicked off a month-long exhibition of strike photos with a special fund-raiser Oct. 26 meant to mitigate some of the penalties and fines it incurred for ordering workers off the job last December.

The Chief-Leader/Michel Friang FROM ROGER, WITH LOVE: Local 100 President Roger Toussaint autographed t-shirts and photographs for transit workers and other labor supporters who turned out for an Oct. 26 fund-raiser to help to pay the union's Taylor Law fines.

Those who attended the event were able to relive the three-day job action through photos displayed at Gallery 1199, part of the Martin Luther King Jr. Labor Center near Times Square.

'1199' Co-Sponsor

The exhibit was curated by Bread & Roses, the cultural arm of Service Employees International Union 1199, which co-hosted the event with Local 100.

Upstairs in the auditorium, visitors were treated to a gospel choir, tap-dancing and reminiscences from several Local 100 strike captains who led the union's various picket actions around the five boroughs.

They were also invited to purchase "Strike 2005" t-shirts, posters and memorial pictures that were then autographed by Local 100 President Roger Toussaint.

During a short speech, Mr. Toussaint told the crowd that Local 100 had gotten some financial support from other labor organizations and retired transit workers. But the contributions weren't nearly enough to offset its monthly outlay of $200,000 to pay off its $2.5-million Taylor Law fine, he added.

'A Strike About Future'

"It's a big hit," Mr. Toussaint told the crowd, which was predominantly made up of transit workers and 1199 members. With the coming loss of automatic dues check-off rights - another penalty assessed against the union by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Theodore Jones - it is particularly important that the union not fall into debt, he stressed.

Mr. Toussaint sought to remind the room of what he saw as the "big picture" goal of the strike.

The political climate in which it occurred raised a "fundamental question of what future jobs in America will look like," Mr. Toussaint said. "Will the next generation be without pensions and health care?"

Toussaint critics - among them three candidates who are vying for his job in coming elections - are quick to point out that the strike has yet to produce a contract for Local 100 members.

Calls Strike Worth It

The Chief-Leader/Michel Friang HEALTH PAYOUT 'BEER MONEY' FOR SOME: Station Cleaner Pat Jewett, with youngest daughter Ahjaah, says there were real gains for single parents and those in lower-paid titles in the post-strike contract deal for Transport Workers' Union Local 100 that was spurned because it required union members to pay 1.5 percent of their earnings toward health premiums. Most contract opponents in her depot, she said, were men in higher-earning positions who 'spend more on beer than that 1.5 percent would have amounted to.'

But many of the labor leader's points hit home for Pat Jewett, a Stations Cleaner for New York City Transit for more than 20 years who is the single mother of two girls.

Looking over the strike photos in Gallery 1199, she expressed no regret about walking off the job.

"My youngest daughter Ahjaah is a special needs child - she's autistic," said Ms. Jewett. "While I was walking the picket line at my depot at 126th St., she was at her school at 128th St. I'd walk over there to pick her up and drop her off and sometimes I'd go into the school to warm up. All the Teachers there, and parents too, were so supportive. They'd say to me, 'Hang in there, you can do it!' They really got it that we were doing it to protect pension rights, not because we wanted a bigger raise."

Minor Progress

When Ms. Jewett joined NYC Transit, there were few females on the job, even in the cleaning positions that are now mostly filled by women. Her first depot in East New York didn't even have a women's bathroom. Ms. Jewett had to ask her supervisor to guard the door every time she wanted to use the facilities. Things have improved, but only moderately, she said. Ms. Jewett struggled to raise her girls, born 20 years apart, on a salary that currently averages approximately $32,000 a year.

"I tried to hide that I was pregnant with Ahjaah [now six] when I learned I was expecting again," she said. "I wasn't sure how management would receive it, so I just wore bigger and bigger clothes for as long as I could. Then I took all my days and went out on sick leave. We didn't have maternity leave."

That was one of the reasons she desperately wanted the post-strike contract deal to be ratified by Local 100. It contains, among other benefits, the first-ever maternity stipend for female transit workers. She said she was deeply disappointed when it was voted down by seven votes in January.

Sees An Inequity

At her depot, she noted, the workers who complained the most about having to pay 1.5 percent of their gross annual earnings toward health-care costs - a concession Mr. Toussaint agreed to in lieu of NYC Transit's demand that a new pension tier be created for future hires - were the Bus Operators and Mechanics who make upwards of $55,000 a year.

"In those titles it's mostly men, and to be frank, they spend more on beer than that 1.5 percent would have amounted to. And in exchange you get lifetime health coverage," she said. "The titles that don't earn as much, the ones that are filled mostly by women, we need that coverage. There was a lot of confusion about that contract and what it really offered. I wish that more transit workers had actually read the terms."

Ms. Jewett recently got involved in union politics - she's contemplating running for a shop steward position. But her decision on who to vote for in the upcoming presidential election was based not on campaign literature, but what she personally has experienced on the job.

'He's Made a Difference'

Over the past five years, she said, she has gotten access to day care for her youngest daughter through Local 100. She's been able to send Ahjaah to a summer camp through a union fund. She's taken adult education classes that trained her in how to use a computer - simple things like sending e-mails, she noted, but skills she didn't have before. She's signed up for more classes through Local 100's college fund. "Before Roger became president we didn't have child care, or college funds - we didn't even have a family day," she noted. "A lot has happened in the six years he's been in office. So the man who stood up for us and made a difference, I would like for him to be able to see it through and get us the next contract."

But, Ms. Jewett cautioned, "I don't think it's going to be easy for him."