How will history judge Roger Toussaint?

HOW HISTORY judges Trinidad-born union leader Roger Toussaint will depend on whether he won or lost his showdown with the Municipal Transit Authority (MTA). As it appears, he directed the nearly 34,000 members of the Transport Workers Union (TWU) 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 outspoken, fiery face of TWU’s Local 100, took a thrashing for three days from New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, Governor George Pataki and many of the city’s editorial boards, who lambasted him for punishing the public. He 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 Bloomberg described Toussaint’s behaviour 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 labour law at Cornell University. 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 Thursday 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. The preparations for the first city transit strike in 25 years had been so detailed that they dispelled any doubt that Toussaint was serious about a possible walkout — even if the TWU and its leaders risked massive fines and jail. In the weeks leading up to the contract’s expiration, Toussaint arranged a US$5 million bank loan to pay for a possible walkout, secured additional money from Local 100’s parent union to finance an advertising campaign and persuaded several city unions to reassign some of their paid staff to support his efforts.

Given that few leaders of the union were even around in1980 during the last transit strike, the level of organisation by the TWU was amazing. While Gov Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg repeatedly warned the union not to even consider a strike, and while many experts predicted a crushing defeat for the union if its members walked out, Toussaint proved to be a more skillful tactician than anyone imagined. He outflanked the MTA, for example, by widening the conflict to include other unions in the transit system  that had gone without a contract for years. By delaying a system wide strike for four days and allowing more time for negotiations, Toussaint kept the city on edge. He drew greater press attention to the issues of the strike. And he appeared to be a rational and patient labour leader.

Toussaint also managed to rally the city’s entire labour movement to his side by depicting the TWU’s contract as a possible trendsetter for all other public unions. At a rally outside Pataki’s office when Toussaint came on stage you saw in his eyes and you heard in his voice the look and the sound of a leader who had no fear. “If Rosa Parks had obeyed the law, many of us who drive the buses today would still be sitting in the back of the bus,” he said as the crowd went wild. The transit strike, the city’s first in 25 years, is thought to have cost New York up to US$1 billion and affected more than seven million commuters. There was a cost to the union — a fine of US$1 million each day of the strike and the workers were fined two days’ pay for each day they missed work. Veteran’s of past labour wars warn that it’s much too early to assess whether Toussaint has won, lost or drawn in the Transit Strike of 2005. That judgment will have to wait until a final agreement is reached and it is known what, if anything, he gave up at the bargaining table.