Why the national TWU and the NYC local don't see eye to eye...

[BrklynLiberal]

Want to know what is REALLY going on with the MTA and the TWU go to http://stevegilliard.blogspot.com/ and read some truth.

These union people are striking for the benefit of every working person in this city, and if you are inconvenienced for a few days that is just too bad. This is about the future of labor in this country!!!!

Transit Union's Family Spat
?

By Tom Robbins | December 20, 2005

Toussaint won election by campaigning against the old guard which was personified by former TWU Local 100 president Sonny Hall who had gone on to head the national union. Toussaint decisively beat a Hall-backed candidate, claiming that the union had squandered both its finances and its clout by playing footsy with transit managers. Once in office, he sliced his own salary by $15,000. His slate of dissidents made similar cuts in their pay. He eliminated an extra pension that local officers had awarded themselves, and also dropped an expensive health plan for officers, putting them on the same plan as members.

One year after his election to the leadership of Local 100, the largest unit in the 120,000-member union, Toussaint challenged Hall for the presidency of the national body. He was roundly defeated. But the election opened a window on the kind of bitter divisions that were wracking the union. Occurring at a union convention just a month after the 9-11 attacks, the campaign against Toussaint's candidacy included distribution of flyers that called Toussaint an ally of Osama Bin Laden.

In 2002, during the last round of contentious talks between the local and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Toussaint and his allies were haunted by the possibility that should they strike, they faced not just the legal sanctions by the state and the city, but the likelihood that Hall would place the local under trusteeship, firing the elected leaders.

In the midst of those talks, those suspicions were fueled by on-air comments by Hall's friend ex-Senator Al D'Amato that Hall would be there "to save the day" in the event of a strike.

There was no strike in 2002, but the threat of a potential takeover by the national union has continued to haunt the local, and has made Toussaint's tightrope walk even more precarious.

The division reflects more than just styles of leadership. The election of Toussaint, a native of Trinidad, represented the culmination of years of racial change among transit workers who were once largely Irish-American. Younger minority workers charged that the old ethnic leadership were more interested in preserving perks for older members than protecting them from the MTA's often draconian disciplinary system.

After his election, Toussaint further outraged Hall and his allies by challenging past local fiscal decisions, including a decision by the union to sell its old headquarters on Broadway for $13.5 million. Six weeks later, the site was resold for $29 million. Records dug up by the union indicated that the local's former attorney had collected a brokerage fee for the building's resale. Toussaint challenged the deal in court, though Hall said he knew nothing about the deal and that it should be investigated.

O'Brien, who earns $216,000 as president of the national union (Toussaint's current wage is $102,000), openly told executive board members last night that he believed that progress was being made at the talks and the union should take the reformulated MTA offer which called for 6 percent annual pension contributions for new employees. Toussaint countered that the offer was a poison pill, one that would burden new members with inferior benefits and which would quickly become a cudgel used against other municipal workers.

At the court hearing in Brooklyn, as soon as the judge dismissed the national union from the lawsuit, its lawyers quickly packed their leather legal satchels and bustled out onto Court Street.



Sonny Hall was a featherbedding patsy for management. He cared more for his pocket than the workers.

The threat of a move by the international union is real, but unlikely for the simple reason that their loyalty is to their current leadership. Hall was bullied by Giuliani and lost his job behind that. They can read a poll like anyone else, and the union still has the city's support.

So when Pataki and Bloomberg herald the International's stand, hoping you don't realize that they have sold out Local 100 in the past and look to do it again.

posted by Steve @ 4:54:00 PM
Comments (36) | Trackback (0)

[aquart]

1. I may not be able to get to my Mom's for Christmas.

She's out in Queens.

But the first thing I was taught when I learned to walk was do not cross a picket line.

If Christmas is delayed, we'll manage.

Selfish people will always be selfish. Republicans will be Republicans. But New York is a union town. Many of us know what's at stake. Know the transit workers are taking the hit for the rest of us.

Pray for their strength. Patronize the small, local merchants. They're taking the next biggest hit.

[BrklynLiberal]

2. Right on.

:thumbsup: :hi:

[two gun sid]

3. Great post !

I stand in Solidarity with these brave fellow Union workers and all the working class of NYC.

Solidarity Forever!
Dump The Bosses Off Your Back !

[G2099]

4. Thanks for the Info - Keep it coming