Letters to the Editor
Toussaint Acts Not Comparable

To the Editor:

A friend recently sent me a copy of your Aug. 24 article, "Accuse Toussaint Of Freezing Out Critics." In your article you report that TWU Local 100 President Roger Toussaint is "deny[ing] release time for elected union officials who did not run on his slate ...".

You then state that in 1997 and '98 Mr. Toussaint "fought a similar battle against then-Local 100 MoW Vice President John Mirrione and union staffer Jack Frohlich."

This is incorrect. Mr. Mirrione and I temporarily took the Track Division officers off release time for refusing to represent members at hearings. They retained their full authority as Division officers to deal with management. Their replacements were elected shop stewards, not union staffers or political opponents. And they were returned to release time as soon as they agreed to conduct hearings.

Mr. Toussaint and his committee were removed from release time "for cause." They refused to represent members at hearings that fell outside their release-time tours. I have never seen, before or since, a union officer simply walk out on members awaiting hearings, leaving them without representation.

In addition, Mr. Toussaint refused to allow the release-time tours to be changed so that the members could be represented on the Division officer's tour. All the officers were returned to release time when Mr. Toussaint agreed to make sure that the members had representation.

Mr. Toussaint and his committee were replaced by elected, experienced, trained shop stewards, not union staffers. None of these stewards had run for office against Mr. Toussaint in the past, nor were they running for office at the time. It was made clear to both the shop stewards and management that the stewards were to do hearings only. All other union business had to be done with Mr. Toussaint and the elected Division officers.

All of this was well-documented at the time. I wrote letters to both Vice President Mirrione and President Willie James detailing the failure to represent members at hearings. It seems to me that before you printed an article stating that Mr. Mirrione and I misused our positions as union officials and acted out of a political motive, you might at least called us for comment. Especially since the entire basis for your reporting about the events of '97 and '98 appears to be letters and leaflets written by Mr. Toussaint.

According to your article, Mr. Toussaint is giving the duties of elected officers to paid staffers, overruled the Track Division chairman regarding release-time assignments, told management not to deal with the elected chairman, and is acting out of political motivation. None of this was true of Mr. Toussaint's suspension from release time in 1997.

Mr. Mirrione and I have more than 25 years in the labor movement each, and we are proud of our record of service to the members. Your representation of us as being unethical and undemocratic is very damaging to our reputations. I am asking you to correct the record and at least mitigate the damage done by your article.

JACK T. FROHLICH, Esq.

Editor's note: Mr. Frohlich was a TWU Local 100 officer for 11 years and a staffer for three.