TBOU Candidate Draws Fire Over Anti-Union Posting on Web Site

ISRAEL RIVERA: Second thoughts after backlash.

The opposition presidential candidate in the Transport Workers Union Local 100 election has distanced himself from a link to an anti-union, online publication on the personal Web site of his slate's number two candidate. The candidate removed the link as criticism mounted last week.

Reports Union Violence

Israel Rivera, who is running for secretary-treasurer on the dissident Take Back Our Union slate, had a link on his site—TWUBus.com—to an article on the Web site of the Center for Union Facts about unions using violence against members who cross picket lines. The organization is headed by Richard Berman, one of the most influential anti-union lobbyists in the country, who is spearheading the effort by Republicans and business groups to defeat the Employee Free Choice Act, a Federal bill that would make it easier for workers to form unions.

UI presidential candidate Curtis Tate did not comment on the matter, but Local 100 Track Division rep John McCarthy, who is running for re-election on the UI slate, said in a letter that appears on Page 5 of this newspaper that when he clicked the link he found "this right-wing, anti-union, anti-Employee Free Choice Act garbage."

TBOU presidential candidate John Samuelsen said he had not been involved in posting the link of Mr. Rivera's site and that it was unrelated to the campaign.

"It is not connected to my Take Back Our Union Web site," Mr. Samuelsen said. "The link was intended to draw a parallel between the [departing Local 100 President Roger Toussaint and Secretary-Treasurer Ed Watt] dictatorship's poor treatment of workers, and similar of treatment of workers elsewhere. McCarthy should examine his own participation in the anti-worker, anti-democratic purges, which he participated in as Toussaint's bootlicker over the last several years."

Removed Offending Link

As of June 24, the link had been removed from Mr. Rivera's Web site. Mr. Rivera said he posted the link prominently on his Web site without knowing the political agenda of the Center for Union Facts. He claimed he wanted to publicize the article because he saw similarities between what other unions do to pressure workers against crossing picket lines and what Local 100 has done to pressure members into voting for the incumbent United Invincible slate.

Mr. Rivera added that upon learning more about the Center for Union Facts after he posted the link, he decided not to use the group's site for research.

Ballots in the Local 100 officer election were returned by last week, but will not be unsealed and counted until December.