Toussaint's International Intrigue Thickens Plot

Some Transport Workers Union Local 100 officials thought a memo issued by their International President meant they wouldn't have Roger Toussaint to kick them around much longer.

The Nov. 19 memo from James C. Little, which came to public light last week, certainly sounded as if Mr. Toussaint had been presented with an exit strategy after nearly three terms of stormy leadership at Local 100.

Noting that as of Dec. 1 Mr. Toussaint would become the International TWU's Director of Strategic Planning, Mr. Little's memo stated, "While Roger continues to hold the position of President of TWU Local 100 in New York, he will begin working directly for me in developing and implementing our Strategic Planning initiatives. Roger will continue with some of the Local 100 duties that he has committed to include settlement of the contract that affects over 35,000 members of the MTA in New York City."

Sounded Like He Was Winding Down

A reasonable inference might have been drawn from that language that once a new contract was reached with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Mr. Toussaint would step away from Local 100 in favor of his new duties at the International, where his position was further secured with a long-overdue appointment as a vice president.

MAN OF MYSTERY: Even as Roger Toussaint (left) expands his horizons with two new roles in his international union, the Transport Workers Union Local 100 president appears to be taking steps to fortify himself against a likely re-election challenge from John Samuelsen.

But since "reasonable" and "Mr. Toussaint" are rarely used in the same sentence these days, it's not surprising that, according to one union insider, this isn't his opening farewell to Local 100.

"He fully intends to return as full-time president and run for re-election," this man said.

As he explained it, Mr. Toussaint's role in what he described as "a short-term project" was to persuade Congress and President-elect Obama to significantly increase Federal mass-transit aid. If successful this would, not incidentally, loosen things up enough at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to allow for a decent wage contract that could help Mr. Toussaint's expected bid for a fourth term in June.

If there are indications of movement on that funding even before the new President takes office Jan. 20, it's not unlikely that Mr. Toussaint would bide his time in reaching an agreement to replace the contract due to expire five days earlier. It's not as if the deadline offers him much leverage this time around, since the chances of a strike are virtually nonexistent.

One source said that during last week's executive board meeting, Mr. Toussaint stated that Mayor Bloomberg had killed the hope of an early settlement in mid-October because the proposed terms included three 4-percent increases, or one more such raise than he was willing to give District Council 37. With both the national and local economies having gone further south since then, it's hard to see where the MTA could find either the money or the gumption to offer a similar package unless a large infusion of aid was suddenly provided by the Federal Government.

The notion that Mr. Toussaint fully intends to seek re-election got some fuel from other machinations — not all of them successful — within the union over the past couple of weeks. Secretary-Treasurer Ed Watt was given the role of health and safety chairman for the International TWU, one which is time-consuming enough that he figures to have to leave his Local 100 post.

Enforcer With a Taste for It

Over the past eight years, Mr. Watt has served as Mr. Toussaint's enforcer, doling out threats, scoldings and discipline to those in need of such. Some union veterans think he embraced the role too happily, and the resentment he engendered went beyond that which might normally be heaped upon the bearer of bad news rather than the formulator of it.

"There's nobody who's been a loyaler soldier to Roger than Ed Watt," the Local 100 insider said. "But Ed's a much-more snide, sarcastic guy, where Roger's pretty blunt."

He was supposed to be replaced by Brian Clarke, a vice president for the Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority Division of Local 100, who is popular among those he represents and is also considered smart. It's an appealing-enough combination that he was also being courted by John Samuelsen, who may be Mr. Toussaint's most-formidable challenger for re-election, even after Mr. Clarke was seen, in Sarah Palin's phrase, palling around with Mr. Toussaint at the Democratic Convention in Denver this past August.

But the moving of Mr. Clarke into Mr. Watt's position ran at least temporarily aground last week due to objections to his likely replacement in the MaBSTOA post. That does not necessarily mean he will now be open to Mr. Samuelsen's entreaties, according to the TWU insider, who said of Mr. Clarke, "Unless he was sure John could win, he wasn't going to go with him."

One of Mr. Toussaint's many former allies said he thought the Local 100 leader might use his new post as a springboard into a long-term gig. "I think after nine years he's probably ready to do something else, and the international being a bigger sandbox and with the Obama Administration coming in, he wouldn't mind having a role dealing with it," said this official, who spoke conditioned on anonymity.

A Suspicious Mind

But Ainsley Stewart, who ran against Mr. Toussaint in the 2006 Local 100 election, said he didn't think his old foe was ready to walk away yet and didn't believe his alliance with Mr. Little would last.

There are those within the union who see Mr. Stewart as conspiracy-minded to the point of being paranoid. While there's some truth to their musings, his theories never venture as far off the deep end as some of Mr. Toussaint's conduct has in dealing with his political opponents during the past couple of years.

Mr. Stewart is convinced that there was something improper about the sale three years ago of the West End Ave. building that still serves as the local's headquarters. That, he said, is the main reason Mr. Toussaint wouldn't relinquish control of the union to the man he has elevated to run its day-to-day operations, Rapid Transit Operations Division Vice President Curtis Tate.

"We've never seen the report of the [building] arrangement between the buyer and the seller," Mr. Stewart said. "I don't see him going over to the international and leaving the sale records in the hands of a regime like Tate's. I think Roger will remain as Local 100 president for the sole purpose of keeping those records under wraps."

Five years after the transaction — roughly two years from now — the local would no longer be required to keep the records on file, Mr. Stewart said, making it safe for Mr. Toussaint to move along.

Then again, there were those who believed even before the 2005 strike that came soon after the building sale that Mr. Toussaint wanted to do something else. Theories abounded: he would seek a City Council seat, or run for political office in his native Trinidad and Tobago. There was talk that he sought a third term two years ago only because he became convinced that Mr. Watt could not hold enough support to win as his hand-picked successor.

Own Appeal Diminished

Then he himself won with just 45 percent of the vote, benefiting from having four opponents to split the majority of the ballots. After dues check-off rights were suspended in June 2007, Local 100's membership made clear all wasn't forgiven, with roughly half of them not staying current on their dues over the 18 months before the penalty was rescinded with last week's paychecks.

Mr. Toussaint pushed through a bylaw change to get the 2009 Local 100 election voting moved up six months, even though the ballot count still won't take place until a year from now. The earlier voting will coincide with the local's election of delegates to the International convention, and if Mr. Toussaint's slate of candidates for delegate posts is successful, it is probably a good indication of how he'll do when the officer ballots are eventually counted.

His role at the International beyond helping to lobby the Obama Administration is also expected to involve lining up support for Mr. Little's bid for his first full term as International President.

Mr. Stewart pointed out that his new duties also offered Mr. Toussaint a chance to surreptitiously build support if he believed the opportunity was there to gain the International presidency for himself.

'Won't Burn Bridges At Local'

Which was all the more reason for the Local 100 president to keep his current job, Mr. Stewart argued. "Toussaint's not going to burn his bridges at the local and leave himself vulnerable to Little throwing him out once Little's re-elected," he said.

But if gaining power at the International well prior to next year's convention is a welcome development for Mr. Toussaint, it has done nothing to discourage Mr. Samuelsen about his own chances of succeeding him. If anything, he seemed relieved that the Local 100 president wasn't stepping out of the picture, which could result in a mad scramble involving multiple candidates rather than what Mr. Samuelsen hopes will be a two-man contest.

"He's in a bind right now — he's not in an enviable position," he said of Mr. Toussaint. "He's got internal problems, and he's having difficulty getting a contract."

Of course, if the right contract materializes, many of those internal problems will dissipate. The one certainty emerging from the announcement of Mr. Toussaint's new roles with the International is that he's got cards to play. For now, at least, it seems a safe bet that he won't fold his hand at Local 100.