Hall Needs to Atone

To the Editor:

The sight of former Transport Workers Union of America International and TWU Local 100 President Harold "Sonny" Hall copiously writing page after page of letters in longhand as early as 6 a.m. at union headquarters in the late 1990s was a source of amazement and no small curiosity to staffers who, on arrival, would often find him in his office penning countless long and convoluted missives.

Now in the autumn of his years, he continues to exhibit unrestrained epistolary flair, colored by a yearning for what can only be called absolution. How else to characterize the close in his last letter to The Chief (March 7 edition), where Hall pleads for "at least an amen" for encouraging TWU Local 100 members not to withhold their dues during the loss of check-off sustained due to the 2005 strike?

While it is natural to want to be viewed favorably by history and to seek reconciliation with former foes, it seems that atonement of some kind has to precede absolution.

Do not TWU Local 100's Private Bus Lines protesters who made the April 4 edition of The Chief deserve to know the nuts and bolts of what went down in 1995-1996 that affected them so drastically, and of Sonny Hall's role in those events?

Let's not forget that loss of TWU Local 100 pay parity with Operating Authority/Transit Authority surface members occurred on Hall's watch. Even though he became TWU President and gave up the presidency of Local 100, he continued to run the game for both institutions for some time afterwards.

When New York City threatened to withhold the annual subsidy for the PBL carriers of approximately $113 million in March 1995, a crisis was set in motion which led to the de-linking of PBL personnel pay parity with TA/OA surface members who all performed the same work. Can Sonny share with us the back story on this historic giveback? Why was it necessary?

How was the issue of transparency on this issue dealt with at the time? What the hell went down? What about the politics and the players? Let's take a dispassionate look. Can Sonny address these questions and the "why" of the sign-off on the deal?

Lastly, what role might the loss of pay parity play in consideration of the Sonny Hall years at the helm of his union? Will it shape a leader's legacy? I look forward to letters that take on these subjects.

RUSSELL SMITH, TWU of America International Organizer 1996-1997, 1999-2001