Sunshine and Smoke

To the Editor:

Ken Sunshine continues to take $10,000 a month from Roger Toussaint. He is paid directly out of union dues to keep negative stories about Roger out of the New York dailies by threatening to withhold Hollywood gossip.

Is he even aware that the 36,000 transit workers support the films made by the actors and actresses he represents? All transit workers should seriously consider boycotting all movies or music produced by anyone Ken Sunshine represents until he works for all transit workers, not just the Roger and Ed show.

Transit work is deadly, as all the fatalities under Toussaint's watch have shown. We still have no significant safety gains. Two bus companies have decertified from TWU Local 100 to get away from Roger the sellout. Mile Square voted down its recent contract only to have Toussaint ram it down workers' throats by having a second vote. The same was done for New York City Transit workers when they voted down the 2005 contract only to have Toussaint ram it down our throats with the second vote. The same old vote till it passes trick.

Roger didn't have an election for vice president in Private Lines because he needed to appoint a fall guy for the sellout contract he's planning on ramming down the throats of the members of Private Lines. They shouldn't even think that they can vote no!

Democracy is dead in TWU. Roger appointed another lackey, Charles Ayala, to be vice president of Maintenance of Way. He was appointed because he could never win the vice presidential election. Watch now as he allows the flagging jobs in MoW to vanish and go to another department. What vice president would not fight for his department except a Roger appointee? Ayala won't fight for MoW, just as he couldn't save the more-than 180 skilled tradesmen from Infrastructure who were forced to do track cleaning. Sellout Roger didn't or couldn't stop it either.

Now MoW has a 32-page booklet on flagging, explaining how absolutely nothing has changed other than that the members of MoW will be protected by flagmen with a different color helmet, as if that's really going to keep us safe. This was created with the help of another Roger lackey, Leroy Jardim, a non-elected track appointee who has never flagged, as he is a Track Equipment Maintainer. He hasn't been on the tracks in over 10 years. What could he tell anyone about flagging? But that doesn't matter, as he is a Roger yes man.

Transit workers: wake up and realize Roger cannot and will not deliver any substantial gains from NYC Transit. He can only deliver smokescreens such as the phony track-safety bill and the 32-page track-safety comic book with no flagging changes except for the color of the flaggers' helmet.

At the Javits Center for the annual giving away of the crumbs, i.e. tee-shirts, Roger stated he was giving half the interest from the sale of the union hall to high-priced attorneys to reinstate dues check-off. What's wrong with the attorneys who work for us now? They are good enough for arbitration, our contracts and Roger's Hollywood jail stint.

Before Roger spends the members' money, he should put it out to all the members of the TWU for a vote. After all, it is their money, right? Plus, after they vote it down, he could always ram it down our throats. Roger, you can rest assured NYC Transit loves you, as you have given them more than they could ever have dreamed of.

THOMAS CREEGAN, Chairman, Power Distribution, TWU Local 100