Local 100 Incumbents Win Int'l TWU Delegate Vote

JOHN SAMUELSEN: Sees hopeful signs despite losses.

The incumbent slate in the Transport Workers Union Local 100 won 72 delegate seats on its international union's board, with the opposition winning 40 spots for the TWU of America convention, union sources said last week.

Despite the fact that the United Invincible slate won the majority of delegates, Take Back Our Union presidential candidate John Samuelsen said that the results pointed towards a victory for his slate in December—when the general officer election ballots will be counted—because it dominated in four of the union's seven divisions.

UI's Strong Spots

The United Invincible slate, which has the support of departing Local 100 President Roger Toussaint, won all the delegates representing members at the Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority, where the incumbents faced no opposition. The incumbent slate also dominated in the Car Equipment Division and sections of the divisions representing school bus and paratransit workers and subway Structure Maintainers.

ROGER TOUSSAINT: An international lightning rod?

UI also won 10 delegate slots in the surface operations section of the TA Surface Division, while the three slots for the division's surface maintenance section went to the United for Change slate led by J.P. Patafio, a former ally of Mr. Toussaint.

TBOU won in all of the Maintenance of Way divisions except for Structure, as well as in the Rapid Transit Operations Division, Stations Division and the sections for Metropolitan Transportation Authority Bus workers.

While Local 100 members voted for convention delegates as well as union officers in June, the ballots for officers will not be opened until December. Mr. Samuelsen discounted the fact that UI won more delegates overall because it won most overwhelmingly in the MaBSTOA Division, where TBOU did not field candidates for delegate although it ran candidates in the general officer election.

'We're in the Running'

"It means we're in the running in December," Mr. Samuelsen said of the contest, in which more than 10,000 members voted.

Steve Downs, who won a delegate spot on the TBOU slate, explained that the dissident caucus ran fewer candidates in the delegate election than in the general officer election after the union's election committee knocked many of its candidates off the ballot on grounds that they had not maintained continuous good standing in the year preceding the election. In many cases, the TBOU denied its candidates were behind on dues.

"If UI had not undemocratically eliminated members in good standing from the ballot in several divisions, TBOU would have 61 delegates and UI would have 51," he said in an email to supporters. "In other words, a majority of members voting in the election supported Take Back Our Union. However, a number of UI candidates were elected because TBOU did not have full slates in all divisions."

Mr. Samuelsen, a Track Inspector who won a delegate spot, said that the TBOU bloc of delegates along with the five from Mr. Patafio's slate will attend the TWU of America convention in Las Vegas in September to pressure International President James C. Little not to elevate Mr. Toussaint in the international hierarchy. Mr. Toussaint is leaving the top position at Local 100 and has taken a full-time strategic affairs job at the International.

'A Poisonous Individual'

"The 45 delegates are certainly going to make it known on the convention floor that this is a poisonous individual and certainly has no place in a significant position in the International," Mr. Samuelsen said. "As long as Roger is in the International, Jim Little has a target on his back. Roger will stab him in the back the instant he gets an opportunity."

Local 100 is the largest affiliate in TWU of America, making up one third of its membership. Historically, many of the union's leaders have come from Local 100, although Mr. Little, the union's former Air Transport Division director, was appointed to the position in 2006.

Local 100 Acting President Curtis Tate, who is running for a full term on the UI slate, did not respond to a request for comment about the delegate election.