TBOU: TWU Incumbents Played Race Card in Vote

JOHN SAMUELSEN: Foes stamp him 'backward.'

Before voting came to a close June 20 in the Transport Workers Union Local 100 general officer election, members in the Maintenance of Way Division received a flyer from the incumbent United Invincible slate featuring photos of some of their candidates and some from the dissident Take Back Our Union slate.

It showed several TBOU candidates in the division, all of them white, including Track Inspector John Samuelsen, who is running for union president. The UI slate displayed several black and Latino members, saying of its rivals, "America is moving forwards not backwards." Not included in the flyer was a photo of the white incumbent holding the second spot on the slate's ticket, Secretary-Treasurer Ed Watt.

Misleading on Racial Makeup?

TBOU denounced the flyer as "pathetic," noting that it was fielding black and Latino candidate in all divisions, including MOW. Station Agent Paul Waldon, who is the president of the Nubian Society of African- American transit workers, faulted UI for framing the contest in racial terms, saying "Samuelsen's not a racist . . . He's taking the most-qualified people."

PAUL WALDON: Race charges 'a crock.'

The MOW flyer, TBOU officials said, was one recent example of how the UI tried to paint the dissident slate as representing a white backlash in the union. The incumbent slate also accused Mr. Samuelsen of encouraging members to withhold dues payments while the union was without automatic check-off. The UI slate—which was led by Acting President Curtis Tate, who is African- American, seeking a full term as president with the support of out-going President Roger Toussaint, a Trinidadian immigrant—seemed intent on highlighting a racial contrast even as Mr. Samuelsen emphasized the diversity of his slate, with an African- American woman and two Latino men running with him at the top of his ticket.

In the final week of voting, UI took aim at TBOU secretary-treasurer candidate Israel Rivera, who after purchasing an Internet domain name containing the words "Roger Toussaint," wrote that he could not sell the domain name and allegedly said that Mr. Toussaint's name was not worth "a damn coconut." The UI slate claimed this was a slur aimed at the departing leader's Caribbean heritage, which Mr. Rivera denied.

CURTIS TATE: Drew racial contrast with flyer.

"It's a bunch of crock," Mr. Waldon said of the UI accusations, which he claimed were meant solely to distract voters from the issues involved in the election. The ballots in the officer election will not be counted until December, an unusual gap that resulted from a bylaw change pushed through by Mr. Toussaint last summer during a vote process in which less than 15 percent of the membership participated.

Mr. Tate did not respond to requests for comment.

Brought Obama In

Mr. Samuelsen filed a defamation suit against the top members of the incumbent slate for insinuating on the UI blog that he beat black and Latino prisoners while employed as a Correction Officer. The UI slate also pointed out that Mr. Samuelsen and TBOU Train Operator Chair candidate Steve Downs, who is also white, did not campaign for Barack Obama, insinuating that this decision might have been racially motivated.

Mr. Samuelsen replied that he has long vowed to avoid partisan politics and Mr. Downs is an activist in Solidarity, a socialist organization that does not support Democratic Party candidates. Local 100 under Mr. Toussaint initially supported John Edwards for President last year; when he withdrew early in the Democratic process, it endorsed Mr. Obama.

The tenor of the UI's rhetoric in the campaign was not surprising, considering that Mr. Toussaint reportedly played a commanding role in designing its strategy. In March 2008, Mr. Toussaint accused Local 100 Power Division rep Thomas Creegan, a prominent critic, of making racist, ape-like noises towards him at a union meeting the previous May.

Creegan: Never Happened

Mr. Creegan and other officers present denied the accusation. Mr. Creegan contended that at that 2007 meeting on track safety in the New York City Transit building at 130 Livingston St. in Brooklyn, he asked the union president whom Power Distribution Maintainers should call if they had thirdrail related safety questions, and when his questions went unanswered, he raised his voice. Mr. Creegan added that if he had made racially provocative comments or gestures, he would have been blasted by the other officers present and bylaw charges against him would have followed.

Mr. Creegan believed that the UI leaflet with the faces of the TBOU's white candidates in the MOW Division was patronizing towards Local 100's membership.

"Is that how they find their union officers, strictly on race, not on merits?" Mr. Creegan said of the UI slate. "They should start treating people like adults."

He added that the incumbents hadn't set an example of racial harmony. Mr. Creegan noted that several Latino reps in the union's Private Lines Division had been chastised by their section recording secretary for speaking Spanish while performing union duties.

He said that he believed that the UI slate's decision to make a race an issue in the election was a sign of weakness. He was confident that most members, at least in MOW, would see beyond the accusations.

"The members don't vote because of race," he said.