Letters to the Editor
Toussaint Not Playing Politics

To the Editor:

The Chief misses the point not once but twice in the article on track inspections last week. First, and most importantly, the article almost completely ignored the real news about track safety. And second, the article got who is playing politics wrong.

In the aftermath of the two deaths on the tracks, some things changed and some did not. Roger Toussaint proposed a new joint labor-management track inspection process, and NYC Transit President Roberts agreed. This reflects a major change from the past. And officers in the Track Division kept up the attacks on Toussaint. No change here.

Toussaint directed me to get the inspection project going. He got NYC Transit to agree to paid release time for additional track workers rather than adding the track inspections to the workload of the current staff. Roger Toussaint offered the work to Track Vice Chairs Navarro and Carrasco. I guess he hoped that track safety was important enough that they would put their political agenda aside. It did not happen.

Navarro and Carrasco admit it. They told The Chief the same thing they told me: that they do not answer to the president of Local 100 or the people he designated to coordinate the inspections that he set up. They are proud to say that Local 100 was not going to decide which locations to inspect; they would. They would decide who got reports on their inspections.

The track inspection teams were from the beginning going to be temporary assignments. In the Local 100 by-laws, the president "shall appoint all committees not otherwise provided for." The union representatives on the track inspection teams were all appointed by the president and had to report to him. Carrasco and Navarro decided not to function this way. So they were sent back to work. No other reason.

Today the track inspection teams continue. In fact, they have been expanded, with additional members released so we can conduct more inspections faster. They get their assignments from me and deliver their reports to me, and I report to President Toussaint.

I don't think all of the current members of the track inspection teams supported candidate Roger Toussaint for president last year, but they all support TWU Local 100 President Roger Toussaint in this drive to improve track safety. If Carrasco and Navarro could have figured that out, The Chief would have had to focus on the track inspections instead of infighting.

JOSE IGLESIAS

Editor's note: The writer is a Trackworker and Director of Night Operations for TWU Local 100.