Newsday (New York), December 23, 2005, Friday

Copyright 2005 Newsday, Inc.
Newsday (New York)

December 23, 2005 Friday
ALL EDITIONS

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A05


HEADLINE: STRIKE ROLLING AGAIN;
For Toussaint, key questions remain

BYLINE: BY MELANIE LEFKOWITZ AND LUIS PEREZ. STAFF WRITERS

BODY:
How history judges Roger Toussaint will depend on whether he won or lost his showdown with the MTA.
As it appears, he directed the nearly 34,000 members of the Transport Workers Union to return to work after three cold, costly days on the picket lines with no visible progress on their contract and no promise of amnesty for their illegal strike.
But some - including many of the rank and file who followed his lead - believe that he wouldn't have done so without securing concessions or promises behind the scenes.
"I think this is a near-total victory for Roger Toussaint," said Joseph Rappaport, a former TWU adviser. "He's likely to have won everything he wanted to win, which is a decent contract that doesn't have a two-tiered system where one group of his members is treated worse than the other."
Toussaint, the Trinidad-born, outspoken, fiery face of TWU's Local 100, has taken a thrashing in the past three days from the mayor, the governor and many of the city's editorial boards, who lambasted him for punishing the public. He's caused friction with his parent union as Mike O'Brien, the president of the International Transport Workers Union, called for the transit workers to return to work. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has described Toussaint's behavior as "thuggish," "shameful" and "selfish."
That criticism, while harsh, matters less to Toussaint than the opinion of his union's membership, said Lee Adler, who teaches public-sector labor law at Cornell University.
"They're not his constituents. They're not who he's concerned with. He's concerned with the members of TWU Local 100 and the citizens of New York," Adler said.
Adler said he would assume that whatever motivated Toussaint to call for an end to the strike was in the union's best interests. That may not necessarily mean they got what they wanted - to take the pension issue off the table - but perhaps that it was time to stem the rising fines and loss of pay. The law imposes fines of two days' pay for every day the workers were on strike.
While the local's executive board voted overwhelmingly to end the strike, dissidents immediately blasted the decision. "This was a disgrace," said TWU vice president John Mooney. "No details were provided to the executive board. [Toussaint] wants us to discuss the details after Christmas."
As they returned to work yesterday afternoon, however, many union members said they were glad for an end to the strike and hopeful about a better contract. Some said they had no regrets.
"I don't think [Toussaint] failed. He did the right thing for us. He had to make a point," said Kevin Brown, of Medford, a train operator on the No. 7 line. "On the next contract, I think they'll be more fair."
"I've got my fingers crossed. I hope he did the right thing," said Phillip Fleming, 62, a bus mechanic who was checking the brakes on a bus just after 4 p.m. yesterday - one of the first city buses to hit the streets in more than 60 hours. "It feels good. Three days is a long time to be out of work with no money."