Ex-TWU Leader Says He Was Smeared By Building Sale Remarks

ROGER TOUSSAINT: Calls sale tale ‘irresponsible.’ Former Transport Workers Union Local 100 President Roger Toussaint has hit back at a statement from the current president, John Samuelsen, to Crain’s New York that money from the sale of the union’s building was mishandled by his administration.

The article stated that under Mr. Toussaint’s watch, the union netted $46 million from the sale of its Upper West Side headquarters but retained just $26 million.

Mr. Toussaint said in a recent email to Local 100 officials, including Mr. Samuelsen, that the current president was the source of the story and that he had told the union’s executive board that there were improprieties surrounding the sale of the building, and threatened legal action if he didn’t “straighten out” the record.

‘I’ll Address Board About It’

JOHN SAMUELSEN: New chapter in building feud. “Where, in the past, you made allegations before as part of your political campaign for office, even though you knew better, you now do so from the vantage point of the office of the president of Local 100. Doing so adds to and reinforces the belief that you are operating from greater reliance on factual information,” said Mr. Toussaint, who is now a full-time official at the Transport Workers Union of America. “I offer to appear before the full Local 100 Executive Board at the earliest opportunity to explain the fiscal decisions and policies undertaken under my administration.”

The article Mr. Toussaint alluded to was a Jan. 24 profile of the new Local 100 president, which said “[Samuelsen] also had to get a grip on Local 100’s finances. The headquarters sale netted about $46 million, but only $26 million remains. One reason: Union officials used the proceeds to cover operating expenses when dues couldn’t be collected via an automatic payroll deduction, a penalty for the illegal 2005 strike. Local 100 ran a $2 million deficit last year, Mr. Samuelsen says.”

Mr. Toussaint continued, “It is in the best interest of the organization that you don’t personally end up in court over irresponsible and libelous comments which can be used against the entire organization. I write to urge you to take steps to straighten out the misleading comments made.”

A Second-Hand Account?

Sources within the union said that the statements about the building sale at the executive board meeting were based on board members’ accounts of what they were told by Mr. Toussaint’s accountant.

Mr. Samuelsen said in reaction to his predecessor’s e-mail, “Toussaint’s association with Local 100 is over and I want to move forward and unite the union, regardless of his attempts of interference.”

Mr. Samuelsen’s Take Back Our Union slate campaigned on the claim that the previous administration conducted the building sale negotiations in secrecy and did not handle the proceeds properly. Mr. Samuelsen had been an ally of Mr. Toussaint until he urged that discussions of the building sale be tabled until a wage contract was reached, prompting Mr. Toussaint to dismiss him from his staff position.