Dissident Taking Steps To Pressure TWU To Halt Local 100 Abuses
By ARI PAUL
A Transport Workers Union Local 100 dues-refusing dissident is calling for a rally against the local's parent union, urging it to either remove the current Local 100 administration and put the union into receivership or scrap the new local bylaws that moved the general election to next June but would leave ballots uncounted until December 2009.

ANTHONY STALEY: 'A radical way' to get fair vote.

Anthony Staley, a Cleaner based at the Utica Ave. station on the A line in Brooklyn, is looking to hold the rally outside the TWU of America's headquarters near Columbus Circle in Manhattan on Oct. 2.

Hoping to Bleed Local

Unlike many of the opponents of Local 100 President Roger Toussaint who encourage dues-payment, Mr. Staley wants to use the rally to discourage payment in order to drain the local of resources, forcing the international to take complete control of Local 100.

"It's a radical way of removing an administration we don't agree with," he said.

Mr. Staley dismissed the route taken by Track Inspector and likely presidential candidate John Samuelsen, who has urged members to pay dues even if they oppose Mr. Toussaint so that they can retain their voting rights.

"That's wrong, because if you encourage, you accept this administration; you play right into their hands," he said, alleging that because there was no independent oversight of the bylaw referendum, there could be no assurance that all members had their voting rights secured. "Even if you're in good standing, your vote doesn't have to count."

Based on the last official figures released by Local 100 a year ago, roughly half of the union's members in New York City Transit and several Metropolitan Transportation Bus depots are behind in dues payments and lack voting rights since the local lost the right to dues check-off as a court-imposed punishment for its illegal three-day strike in 2005.

A spokesman for Mr. Toussaint did not respond to requests for comment.

Mr. Staley agreed with other members that the new bylaws moving the 2009 election up by six months but keeping the ballot count in December put challengers to Mr. Toussaint's slate at a disadvantage That is why he wanted the TWU of America to overturn the outcome of the referendum, in which only 5,000 of the union's nearly 40,000 members voted.

"This is the only way we can ensure a fair election," he said.