Queens TWU Rep: Asking Questions Got Me Booted; Quizzed Toussaint on MTA Bus

Transport Workers Union Local 100 President Roger Toussaint has removed another dissident officer without publicly stating a reason or going through the local's trial procedure, and the officer claimed it was retaliation for questions he raised regarding contract terms for Metropolitan Transportation Bus workers at the union's annual mass membership meeting two days earlier.

The Chief-Leader/Michael O'Kane FALLEN ANGEL: Transport Workers Union Local 100 President Roger Toussaint revoked union duties from Metropolitan Transportation Authority Bus Operator Angel Perez, who was told he had been behind on his dues payments even though his account showed a credit. Mr. Perez speculated that his removal was retaliation for his questions about MTA Bus contract talks at the union's mass membership meeting.

In a letter to MTA Bus managers Dec. 15, Mr. Toussaint said that Angel Perez, who is the Queens Division recording secretary for the union's Private Lines Division, was "prohibited from representing Local 100 in any capacity."

Dues Arrears Alleged, Refuted

ROGER TOUSSAINT: Unreceptive to tough questions?

Mr. Perez, who is based at the College Point Depot, was elected on the dissident Fresh Start slate but has been working without release time since August. He was informed last week that Mr. Toussaint took the action against him because he had fallen behind in dues payment, a charge he denied, and said that he had not had any other conflict with the union's leadership.

"I've done nothing to Roger Toussaint on a personal level," Mr. Perez claimed in a phone interview.

Local 100 records show Mr. Perez had a credit on his dues account.

He said that the union added insult to injury because he did not learn about his removal from the union or management, but rather from a College Point Depot member who had seen the letter.

Mr. Perez said the only confrontation he had with Mr. Toussaint was during the mass membership meeting Dec. 13 at the Javits Center, when he asked the president about the status of the MTA Bus contract. Local 100's MTA Bus members have been without a contract since 2000, and the New York City Transit contract expires on Jan. 15, 2009, but Mr. Toussaint has stated that settling the bus contract was of paramount importance.

"As an officer I'm entitled to know what was presented," Mr. Perez said of the proposed MTA Bus contract terms. "We were supposed to review that."

Says Toussaint Ducked

According to Mr. Perez and other witnesses, Mr. Toussaint dodged the majority of the questions from him and other members, saying that some members were looking for information to pass along to the press; in particular, this newspaper.

"I can't think of anything else," Mr. Perez said, adding that according to the local's bylaws he would have to be charged with wrongdoing before he could be removed from office. "Even a criminal gets better justice. You can't convict somebody without having a trial."

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

Even though Mr. Perez was an official representative for Local 100 until Dec. 15, it was not easy, he said, because union Vice President Enzo Sinnona kept him out of division meetings, leaving him unable to record minutes.

"This is a man that was appointed, and I was elected by the members to do this job," Mr. Perez said.

Exiled Over Disputes

The dissident officer joins a long list of colleagues who have been removed from their duties or stripped of their release time following public quarrels with the Local 100 president.

In January, Queens Chair for the union's Private Lines Division Joe Sexton, who ran with Mr. Perez on the Fresh Start slate, had his release time revoked for allegedly using release time for personal business, screaming at members during union meetings and using ethnic slurs. Mr. Sinnona had claimed that Mr. Sexton, an Irish immigrant who often invokes the leadership of Local 100's Irish-born founder Michael J. Quill, also insisted that Local 100 should be an exclusively Irish-led union.

Mr. Sexton denied the accusations and added that if the vice president wanted to address those issues, he should have filed bylaw and constitutional charges first rather than suddenly taking him off release time.

Dissident purges have also been prevalent in the Maintenance of Way Division, where the majority of officers elected on the Rail and Bus United slate have had their union titles or duties delegated to Local 100 staffers.

Power Division rep Thomas Creegan lost his release time after the union claimed he had not adequately come to the aid of an injured member. Mr. Creegan countered that it was in retaliation for his criticism of the union's decision to endorse the establishment of a labor-management track safety task force instead of pushing for government oversight on work safety regulations.

Allege Race Influences Criticism

While Mr. Toussaint has largely remained silent on the decision to remove these officers, he said in a 2006 interview that objections to his decisions to replace officers or assign duties to certain people "wouldn't be as intense and vile if I were white and speaking without an accent."

Several of the officers Mr. Toussaint has since removed or taken off release time have been African-American or Latino, and the removals have sparked criticism from several leaders of the Nubian Society of black transit workers.

In a recent interview, Mr. Toussaint told the Amsterdam News that he worried that there were individual members opposing the union, though he did not name them specifically.

"It is one thing to argue over which direction the boat should sail in," Mr. Toussaint said of internal differences. "It is something else to kick a hole in the bottom and hope the boat sinks. Had I not seen it with my own eyes, I would have found it hard to credit that some people were doing this."