During the 60-hour transit strike that hobbled the city last December, Roger Toussaint, the union leader, emerged as the ubiquitous and unsmiling face of the striking workers. þþMr. Toussaint was the one many footsore New Yorkers railed against as they walked or hitchhiked to work. And Mr. Toussaint was the one many working-class New Yorkers hailed for standing up for the little guy. þþBut the strike that briefly disrupted city life has caused a more lasting disruption within the union, which is still without a contract after 11 months, and now Mr. Toussaint is in a bitter fight to retain his post as president in an election that has become a referendum on his leadership.þþBallots were to be mailed to the more than 37,000 members of Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union yesterday. The ballots for president and other top union positions must be returned by the morning of Dec. 15. Mr. Toussaint, who is running for a third consecutive three-year term, is being challenged by four opposing slates trying to tap into widespread dissatisfaction over the strike and its muddled aftermath. He has also come under fire for what his opponents call an authoritarian leadership style and for ostracizing union officials who do not agree with him. Well-known political strategists are advising both sides, a situation more often seen in campaigns for public office than an internal union battle.þþThe number of opposition slates may be to Mr. Toussaint’s advantage, since it means that union members unhappy with his tenure will split their votes. Interviews with about 30 union members in recent days revealed a deep vein of discontent with Mr. Toussaint, but there was no clear consensus for any of his opponents. þþThe members were often angry or outright dismissive toward Mr. Toussaint. “He asked us for the strike, we supported him and we don’t have anything for it,” said Michael Burt, a subway car inspector. He mentioned the fines paid by striking union workers under the state’s Taylor Law as a source of lingering displeasure. “We have to give the new guys a chance,” he said. þþThe strongest challenge to Mr. Toussaint appears to come from Barry Roberts, a union vice president and former bus driver, who heads a slate known as Rail and Bus United. The slate contains some union veterans who were once close to Mr. Toussaint, most notably John Samuelsen, a track worker and union organizer who split with Mr. Toussaint last year. The other challengers are Mike Carrube, a subway conductor; Ainsley Stewart, a union vice president who represents subway car inspectors and maintainers; and Anthony Staley, a subway cleaner.þþMr. Roberts is the only opposition candidate to run with the backing of a full slate of candidates for the 7 vice president spots and 22 other posts on the union’s executive board, an indication of the potential strength of his candidacy. His nominating petition had more than twice as many signatures than any other challenger’s. þþFewer than two-thirds of the members are expected to vote. þþBoth Mr. Toussaint and Mr. Roberts have enlisted the help of high-powered and well-connected consultants. Mr. Toussaint is working with Ed Draves of Bolton-St. Johns, a powerful lobbying firm headed by Norman Adler, who has deep roots in New York labor circles. Mr. Roberts has tapped George Arzt, a veteran Democratic political consultant, to handle his public relations and advise him on political strategy. þþAfter the union halted its strike and the buses and subways started again last December, Mr. Toussaint completed a contract that was voted down by the membership in January by just seven votes. þþIn April, Mr. Toussaint was jailed for several days for leading the strike, which was prohibited under the state’s Taylor Law. The same month, the union voted on the contract again, approving it by a wide margin, but by then the Metropolitan Transportation Authority refused to go along and insisted that both sides submit to binding arbitration.þþAfter holding hearings over the summer and fall, an arbitration panel is expected to impose contract terms in mid-December. þþAt a debate last Tuesday between Mr. Toussaint and three of his challengers, Mr. Toussaint described himself as the candidate best able to face down a management team at the transportation authority, which he characterized as aggressively anti-worker. þþ“This union requires strong, tough leadership,” Mr. Toussaint said. “You can’t give a union like ours over to weak leadership, because we’re facing very bad people.” þþMr. Toussaint dismissed his opponents as members of the “we hate Roger club.” þþMr. Roberts was the only challenger to skip the debate; it was a somewhat isolated affair, conducted in front of a small group reporters and a handful of supporters picked by each candidate and was not broadcast on radio or television.þþAsked why he did not participate, Mr. Roberts said he was not invited until after the other candidates, although the organizers said all the candidates were contacted on the Friday before the event. Mr. Roberts also said he wanted to take his message directly to union members in visits to their work sites. “My message is to the members, not to Roger,” Mr. Roberts said. þþMr. Roberts said he had pledged to work alongside officials elected from other slates, in contrast to what he said was Mr. Toussaint’s record of pushing away union staff members or officials he did not consider his allies. þþIn an interview, Mr. Toussaint said that he had fostered greater democracy in the union, and that the open dissent among union officials was a product of that.þþ“If you measure democracy in large part by the participation and empowerment of the members, we have done more to bring the members into involvement in union activities and have more membership participation in the union and officer participation in the union than has been done in decades,” he said. þþHank Sheinkopf, a Democratic political consultant who was not involved in the race, said that even more than in campaigns for public office, an incumbent in a union election is very difficult to beat. þþ“Having participated in many union elections all over the country, there is one standard truth: incumbent presidents tend to be re-elected,” Mr. Sheinkopf said.þþMr. Toussaint, a former subway track worker, did manage to beat an incumbent when he was first elected in 2000, waging a campaign that was highly critical of a contract negotiated by the union president at the time, Willie James. Now he faces the same kind of anger that brought him into office. þþ
Source: NY Times
