Critics' Hypocrisy

To the Editor:

I have been in the TWU Local 100 Track Division for 27 years. I thought I had seen it all. But reading last week's letters from Joel Fredericson and John Samuelsen, I would come to the conclusion that there was another hidden Track Division out there, where all the safety experts were men who look like me - I mean white. I felt I had to let the readers know the truth.

Joel wants the world to believe that he and Samuelsen and Pat Lynch woke up one day and formed a group that worked to make safety on the tracks the priority. The truth is that it was people like Julio Rivera, Leroy Jardim, Jose Iglesias and Roger Toussaint who showed them, and all of us, how to stand up to management. How to make sure a supervisor didn't put a work gang in a dangerous situation. How to make sure that the guys in the union office who only wanted to have cushy jobs didn't cut any deals that put the lives of workers in danger.

When Local 100 put track safety back on the agenda, it was black and Latino leaders who led the way, with Roger Toussaint front and center. Roger even took a 2-1/2-year suspension. That's the real history.

Men like Julio and Roger trained all of those guys and made sure they knew what they were doing and understood the procedures. I can even recall when Samuelsen and Pat Lynch would write countless letters to the editor letting the world know how hard Roger's administration was working on track safety. I remember when Joel Fredericson would tell anyone who would listen that this group of men really knew what they were doing and no one was better equipped for the job.

So it is just shocking to now read how the men who trained us all are unqualified, and that some of the guys who got training from Roger and Julio who now call themselves the only real experts.

Joel, John, and Pat, I know that you all have problems with Roger, but I never thought I would see the day when you would put that over the lives of your brothers and sisters on the tracks. It is a shame, and I know a lot of people like myself expected better of you.

JOHN McCARTHY, Railroad Track Cleaner, Vice Chair, TWU Local 100 Track Division