Say He Violates Bylaws
Toussaint Exclusions A Blast At His Past

By ARI PAUL

In November 1999, then-Transport Workers Union Local 100 Track Division Chairman Roger Toussaint was a plaintiff in a lawsuit with fellow chairmen charging that the union and its president, Willie James, kept them out of contract negotiations with New York City Transit in violation of the union's bylaws. And in 2003, Mr. Toussaint, now Local 100 president, led a rally outside of TWU International headquarters accusing its then-president, Sonny Hall, of wrongfully locking out Local 562 officials from airline contract negotiations.

ROGER TOUSSAINT: Bars critics from talks.

Two chairmen of Local 100's Private Lines Division filed Local 100 bylaw and constitutional charges Jan. 30 claiming that despite his past actions, Mr. Toussaint and other union officials were keeping them out of contract negotiations with Metropolitan Transportation Authority Bus.

Back on the Bus

Westchester Division Chairman Pete Denicolo said that he has not been invited to negotiating sessions with MTA Bus. Queens Division Chairman Joe Sexton has said the same thing. Adding injury to insult, he was stripped of his release time last month by Private Lines Division Vice President Enzo Sinnona, putting Mr. Sexton back at his full-time bus-driving job. Mr. Sinnona told MTA Bus management in a letter to deal instead with Hector Comrie, a newly-elected vice chairman.

JOE SEXTON: Paying price for dissent.

Local 100 bylaw Article XXVI states that "each negotiating committee shall consist of the local officers and the chairmen of the divisions covered by the contract." In their charges last week, Mssrs. Sexton and Denicolo demanded that the union's executive board force Mr. Toussaint into compliance.

"They've locked us out and they're doing everything behind the scenes," Mr. Denicolo said in a phone interview. "They told Sexton that he's disrupting the meetings and he's going on and on, and that's not true."

Mr. Denicolo speculated that Mr. Toussaint along with Mr. Sinnona and Local 100 Secretary-Treasurer Ed Watt were willing to agree to less-favorable contract terms. Mr. Denicolo has insisted on parity of pay for Bus Operators in his division, who he said are paid less than their counterparts in New York City Transit, and the right to a full pension at age 55 if they have 25 years of service.

'Sacrificing Us'

"They don't want to hear that," he said. "We feel that we're the guinea pigs here. We're being sacrificed."

Both chairmen were elected in 2006 on the Fresh Start slate, which opposed Mr. Toussaint's One Union slate. Mr. Denicolo has also been accused by Local 100 officials of falling behind on his dues payments, a charge that he denied.

One of Mr. Toussaint's most-prominent critics pointed to the debacle in the Private Lines Division as an example of his hypocrisy.

Ainsley Stewart, who ran against Mr. Toussaint in 2006 after being his co-plaintiff in the 1999 lawsuit over being excluded from negotiations, said last week, "one contract later, in 2002, Toussaint locked everyone out. He embraced what he once condemned. He did the same thing as Willie James did."

Spokesmen for Mr. Toussaint did not respond to requests for comment.

This is not the first time in the past year that Mr. Toussaint has been accused by his internal detractors of flip-flopping. The Local 100 leader has stripped several officials who ran on the dissident Rail and Bus slate for positions in the union's Track Division of their release time, including Jack Blazejewicz and Chairman Carlos Albert.

'Suppressing Dissent'

In 1997 and '98, Mr. Toussaint, then the Track Division chairman, fought against the removal of elected officials in that division.

Mr. Denicolo saw the situation for him and Mr. Sexton as strictly political.

"They're only taking out guys who ran on the Fresh Start team or who ran on the Rail and Bus team," he said. "They want to keep us down and out. They'll do everything under the sun to keep us out, and they've done that."