Feature Page: Transit Worker Vote Sends Mixed Message

By MARTY GOODMAN

NEW YORK—On Dec. 10, the city’s subway and bus workers re-elected Roger Toussaint, a former track worker, as president of the Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 100. Toussaint received 60 percent of votes cast. Fifty percent of the Local's 37,000 members cast their ballots. Toussaint was first elected president in December 2000 as the leader of the insurgent rank-and-file movement New Directions. In 2000, Toussaint received 60 percent of the vote against two opponents who represented the union's divided old guard.

Toussaint's single opponent in 2003 was Noel Acevedo of the Members 1st slate, the local's recording secretary and a New Directions (ND) founder. ND members, including some who identify themselves as socialists, found themselves on both sides in this election. The main election themes were Toussaint's record on union democracy and negotiating a three-year contract with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) in December 2002. But there were surprises for everyone. The opposition Members 1st slate scored several victories in the powerful positions of vice-president. They will now run four out of seven Local 100 divisions. In a fifth division, an independent slate of Toussaint opponents and ND members won two positions including the V.P. spot in the Station Division, where job cuts are a major issue.

In yet another twist, the "Toussaint Unity Slate" managed to maintain a majority on the Local's 45 member Executive Board but the local's Executive Committee, composed of 10 top officers, is now tied between Toussaint supporters and opponents. "It's gonna be weird. I don't envy anybody," said Steve Downs, an ND founder who ran on the Members 1st slate.

Toussaint filed a post-election protest, one of many, with a neutral election monitor. It mainly objected to an anti-Toussaint mailing by TWU International President Sonny Hall to Local 100's Executive Board. Toussaint sought a re-run election—but only in races that the "Toussaint Unity Slate" lost!

On Dec. 28 a neutral monitor upheld a Toussaint re-run request in the close vice-presidential race in the Queens Private Lines Bus Division, several close Executive Board races, and some lower offices. A previous Toussaint protest seeking a local-wide re-run election, but only in races that the “Toussaint Unity Slate” lost, was rejected.

Sorting out the vote

Many workers compared Toussaint positively to his weak predecessor, Willie James, and voted to continue what they perceived to be change. But many who gave Toussaint the benefit of the doubt were deeply dissatisfied with the day-to-day functioning of Toussaint's subservient bureaucrats, as the vote to replace five vice presidents shows.

Beginning in 2001, members learned of hardcore ND members and independents being purged from the union hall. Toussaint, who was the stand-bearer for ND in 2000, was punishing dissent—contradicting ND’s long fight for union democracy. In spring 2001, Toussaint supporters on paid staff packed an ND meeting and voted out independent ND officers. ND's popular newspaper Hell on Wheels never appeared again. The contract ratification debate accelerated the purges.

In May 2003, Toussaint faxed internal union documents to the MTA on Clarence Little, a dissident Executive Board member, following an altercation with a pro-Toussaint staff member. Little was suspended without pay and remains without a paycheck today. Toussaint, himself a victim of MTA frame-ups, betrayed union principles by supplying internal union information to management. Members were confused, demoralized, and often angry.

However, the most controversial election issue was the 2002 contract. Many conservative workers gave support to Toussaint in the belief that he was more moderate than Acevedo on contract issues. Acevedo was critical of Toussaint’s cautious role, particularly his failure to prepare the membership to strike.

The contract did register some gains, such as health benefits for retirees and significant discipline policy reforms. But there were also give-backs on job security issues such as removing a no-layoff clause; consolidation of bus lines, and other concessions associated with automation and "downsizing."

Workers were most angry over the first-year wage freeze and a 3% and 3% wage increase in 2003 and '04. Salaries already lagged those of workers in other regional rail systems. Particularly insulting was a highly taxed $1000 one-time payment in lieu of a real first-year wage hike.

At contract time the MTA said it faced budget deficits—this time, it was $2.8 billion. For transit workers it was a familiar story. Toussaint took the MTA’s bait and traded significant wage increases for restoring under-funded health benefits.

But in April 2003, two government reports revealed that in 2002 the MTA had hidden over $500 million and a year-end surplus. Local 100 members were infuriated, but Toussaint ignored calls to re-open the contract. Lastly, many voters balked at supporting the Members 1st coalition. The opposition grouping had been forged by several ND founders, who forged a coalition with members of Local 100's old guard. The latter were seen as supporters of the the sell-out Sonny Hall, the former Local 100 president and currently the TWU International president. Toussaint strongly criticized that coalition, allowing him to distract attention from his own failures to mobilize the membership.

Collapse of New Directions

In its 15-plus years, ND advocated union democracy, a tougher stance against management, reduced officer's salaries, membership participation, and independence from the two capitalist parties.

But ND aimed most of its fire against union bureaucrats instead of management—the main enemy. In addition, ND frequently relied on the court system, an extension of the boss class itself, to correct undemocratic union practices.

This overall approach frequently left workers as sideline observers, not active participants. The Members 1rst election coalition sharply revealed this flawed perspective. An electoral alliance with the old guard was chosen over long-term mobilizing.

A lack of political education in genuine class-struggle politics was another weakness both within ND and beyond. Local 100 members were thus handicapped when trying to sort out issues raised by Toussaint”s lack of strike preparation, his growing bureaucracy (many of Toussaint’s defeated candidates have already been given jobs), and his embrace of the Democratic Party wing of the ruling class.

Traditionally, ND's strongest base was in the train operators, conductors, and tower division known as Rapid Transit Operations (RTO). Yet, for the first time in decades, RTO workers voted to approve a contract—Toussaint's.

In the recent election RTO workers gave Toussaint 2035 votes over Acevedo, a train operator, who received 998 votes.

In 2004, a fighting Local 100 must be rebuilt.