Can Petition Court
TWU Hasn't Sought Dues Restoration

By ARI PAUL

More than three weeks after Transport Workers Union Local 100 gained the right to petition to have dues check-off reinstated, it has not done so and won't say why.

ROGER TOUSSAINT: A curious inaction.

The union June 1 lost the right to have members' dues automatically deducted from their paychecks for at least 90 days as a result of its illegal, three-day strike in 2005. In the days prior to that sanction, Local 100 conducted what it called the "Save Our Union" campaign, sending staffers into the field to persuade members to choose an alternative payment method. As of May 25 roughly 16,000 members had signed up to pay their dues. Since then, Local 100 has not provided updated figures.

Making Do With Less

"The loss of dues check-off means that Local 100 is left with less resources and has to make the best use of those resources we do have," Mr. Toussaint said in a letter to members last month. "There have been salary cuts and some staff members have even had to return to their tools. Other cuts have been made as well."

STANLEY ARONOWITZ: Makes union less remote.

Frank Goldsmith, who had worked as the union's director of occupational safety, was recently laid off, members said. Some administrative staffers were laid off, according to Local 100 members.

John Edmunds, the Office and Professional Employees International Union Local 153 representative for Local 100 workers, did not respond to requests for comment.

Members have asked why Local 100 has not filed to have dues check-off reinstated.

"It might be they figure they are better off having an alternative rather than being turned down," said Ken Margolies, the director of organizing programs at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations.

For union expert Stanley Aronowitz, a Professor of Sociology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, there were several possibilities.

'Maybe They Can Wait'

"They're sloppy and they let it pass," he said. "That's not the likely explanation. The other is for some reason they're doing well enough without dues collection that they feel they can wait. There may be some legal reason of which I'm not aware."

Professor Aronowitz noted that there is a section of the labor movement, albeit one that is antiquated and shrinking, that believes a union and its leadership can benefit from not having dues check-off.

"You're no longer a remote mountain," he said. "You are in the field. The perception of the members is that this is an active leadership. Automatic check-off makes the union look more or less like a bank."

Local 100 members who are in bad standing because they haven't paid dues do not have the right to vote in union elections or participate in union meetings. Track Inspector and opposition leader John Samuelsen is among those who have speculated that some members have not paid dues as a form a protest against Mr. Toussaint's governance. He has joined other dissidents including Station Agent Marty Goodman and Train Operator Division Chairman Steve Downs in publicly encouraging members to pay dues, in no small measure to retain their membership rights.

Battles Over Payment

Disputes over whether some members are current with their payments have been the source of conflict within the union. Station Agent Joe Pollard claimed he was physically ejected from the union hall in July for not paying dues even though his records showed that he had. Local 100 Secretary-Treasurer Ed Watt Aug. 23 told Cleaner Dwayne Hammonds, a vice chair in his division, that he could not enter the union hall because he was in bad standing and that he would be arrested if he came in, even if he tried to pay his dues. Mr. Hammonds eventually came back to the union hall and paid his dues without incident.

In June, Mr. Toussaint accused Mr. Samuelsen of discouraging members from paying dues because of a letter he had signed, and ruled that he was no longer authorized to be a shop steward. The letter said that members had the obligation to pay dues, but that it came "with the understanding that the union's leadership is not abusing the union's finances."

During a protest of Mr. Toussaint's administration outside the union's headquarters last month, Power Distribution Maintainer Brendan Sheil approached the building to pay his dues as a staffer was collecting payments in the lobby. As Mr. Sheil got closer to the building, a security officer locked the door and barred him from entry.