TOUSSAINT GOES TOO FAR

Toussaint Goes Too Far

Roger Toussaint and John Samuelsen are fast becoming the Transport Workers Union Local 100 version of Roberts vs. Rosenthal. Their quarrel is a falling-out between more-natural allies that reached the point of no return when Mr. Samuelsen led the charge that prompted the seven-vote defeat of the contract Mr. Toussaint negotiated following the December 2005 transit strike.

It's no surprise that Mr. Toussaint took that defeat very personally. He has gone too far, however, in stripping Mr. Samuelsen of a shop steward position to which he was elected last month on the grounds that he had discouraged union members from voluntarily paying their dues.

Mr. Samuelsen has publicly urged the Local 100 rank and file to pay its dues in the wake of suspension of automatic dues check-off as a penalty for the transit strike, saying members should put aside their grievances with Mr. Toussaint in the interest of keeping the union solvent.

Mr. Toussaint's justification for taking away the steward's position rests on a passage of a letter co-signed by Mr. Samuelsen stating that members' obligation to pay dues came "with the understanding that the union's leadership is not abusing the union's finances."

No doubt Mr. Toussaint did not like the innuendo in that phrase. It's nonetheless hard to argue that Mr. Samuelsen was advocating against paying dues simply because the letter took a political dig at Local 100's leader by accusing him of handing out paid jobs to his supporters.

The eight men from a Brooklyn-based gang of Track Inspectors who elected Mr. Samuelsen their steward stated in an open letter to Mr. Toussaint last week that they chose him because of his activism on their behalf.

Mr. Toussaint undermines the concept of union democracy - as well as his argument that during the crisis caused by the dues check-off loss, members should rally around the union whether they support him or not - when he uses a flimsy excuse to thwart the will of those workers.