TWU Scrambles to Handle Loss of Dues Rights;
Find Some Members Unwilling to Sign Over Payments

By ARI PAUL

Automatic dues check-off for transit workers will be revoked on June 1, and Transport Workers' Union Local 100 is fighting for economic survival.

ROGER TOUSSAINT: Tries to keep dues coming.

A Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice last year ordered that dues check-off - the practice of management automatically deducting union dues from each member's paycheck - be revoked for at least three months as a penalty for the union's 2005 three-day work-stoppage. Under the state's Taylor Law, it is illegal for public employees to strike. The change affects nearly 34,000 members.

Alternate Pay Methods

Local 100 has been encouraging members to sign up to have dues automatically and regularly drawn from their accounts through a union Web site. Members can elect to pay by check through the mail or in person at the union's office. Teams from the union have been roaming from shop to shop with laptops to allow members to sign up through the Web site, according to the union.

Traffic Checker Connie Futrell was on union release for the last few weeks, going to subway shops and depots to sign up members. She was optimistic about the campaign.

"It's the easiest job," she said. "They all are signing up willingly."

As of May 25 roughly 16,000 members had signed up to pay their dues. The campaign is expected to continue after June 1.

For some critics of Local 100 President Roger Toussaint, the race to sign up members for dues payment has made for a turbulent time.

John Samuelsen, a Track Inspector and a vocal member of Rail and Bus United, a group opposed to Mr. Toussaint, said that union leadership falsely accused him of telling members not to sign up for dues payment.

In the April 23 issue of Transit Worker's Voice, a newsletter sent to shop stewards and activists throughout the union, Mr. Samuelsen and others wrote, "Regardless of what your opinion of Roger Toussaint and [Secretary-Treasurer] Ed Watt, we must pay our dues in order to preserve TWU Local 100."

Peter Denicolo, the Westchester Division Chairman of the opposition Fresh Start, said he faced a similar accusation.

'Don't Feel Like Paying'

"They don't want to pay dues," he said of members at Eastchester Depot, adding that he encouraged them to pay.

Union officials did not comment on the specific allegations. However, anonymous flyers circulated throughout the union telling members not to pay dues because Mr. Toussaint used the strike as a distraction from an allegedly illegal sale of the union's headquarters. The names of two union staffers were placed on a fraudulent letter urging members to pay dues so that the two could keep their jobs and not return to track work.

"There's a lot of anger out there," said Mr. Samuelsen, adding that he did not know much about the anonymous flyers. "Out of frustration, some people would be inclined to make the dues issue a referendum on Toussaint and Watt. That's not the right thing to do."

Despite the union's efforts, Dennis Campagna, a legal analyst at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations, speculated that it was in for tough times.

'Running With Leg Tied'

"It's like running a race with one leg tied up," he said. "Under the law, the union has an obligation to provide services to everyone in the bargaining unit. That means they have got to continue to provide services during this period that they are losing their dues."

Along with the $2.5 million fine imposed on the union after the 2005 strike, a significant loss of dues income could hamper the union's ability to function properly, according to Mr. Campagna.

"This is nothing to shake a stick at," he said. "It's a very serious penalty."