New York’s Transit Local Recovers Dues Check-off, Accepts Strike Prohibition

The union representing New York City’s bus and subway workers recovered their right to dues check-off after 17 months of punishment for an illegal strike in December 2005.

The court also fined each striker, slapped Transport Workers Union Local 100 with millions in fines, and jailed local President Roger Toussaint for four days over the 60-hour strike.

In November, a judge ordered check-off to be restored, but only after Toussaint bowed to Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s demand, submitting that:

“[T]he Union does not assert the right to strike against any government, to assist or participate in any such strike, or to impose an obligation to conduct, assist, or participate in such a strike, and that the Union has no intention, now or in the future, of conducting, assisting, participating, or imposing an obligation to conduct, assist or participate in any such strike, or threatening to do so, against the plaintiffs or any governmental employer.”

CONTRACT DEADLINE LOOMS

Toussaint’s statement has no immediate impact because there is no chance that the union will strike when its contract expires in mid-January.

With the city facing a $4 billion budget hole, the leadership of Local 100 remains largely silent while management threatens to layoff more than 2000 workers, eliminate two subway lines, cut bus service, and raise the basic fare by 25 percent. Though it won back dues check-off, the local is disarmed and directionless leading up to the contract expiration.

There have been no rallies or slowdowns, and local leadership didn’t solicit contract proposals from the members. Negotiations have been conducted in secret. Toussaint appears to have given up on mobilizing around a better contract just as he has given up the idea of striking.

“Members ask me all the time when is the union going to take the contract fight to the streets and directly to the MTA, like we always do,” said Marvin Holland, a cleaner and former Executive Board member.

When management made clear they expect givebacks from the union, Toussaint emphasized that relations were improving. When check-off was lost in June 2007, Local 100 was deeply divided. The membership had narrowly voted down the contract that followed the strike.

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When Toussaint made it clear that he would not try to negotiate a better deal and the MTA threatened binding arbitration, the members approved it. (Despite the approval in the second vote, the contract did go to arbitration. The arbitrator’s award in December 2006 was essentially the same as the deal rejected by the members in January 2006.)

Toussaint was re-elected in late 2006 with 43 percent of the vote. The outcome of the strike and Toussaint’s ability to hold onto his office with a minority of support demoralized a large number of members, which led many to withhold their dues.

After 17 months, fewer than half of the local’s members are paid up, some because they’re demoralized, some because they’re withholding support from Toussaint, and others because they think they’re just saving money.

A WEAK POSITION

Toussaint mobilized staff to entice members to pay their dues, highlighting the services the union provides (such as summer camp or a cash bonus at a local bank). Instead of reorienting the local toward building a strong presence on the job and using stewards and other activists as the primary dues collectors, he eliminated stewards training.

Toussaint enlisted the local’s executive board for a campaign of retaliation against his critics, missing a chance to bring different factions together in a common defense of the embattled union. Stewards who called for more accountability from the local leadership regarding expenditures were stripped of their credentials.

Officers who ran against Toussaint’s slate in 2006 and who were a few days late in making their payments were declared to be in bad standing, were removed from office, and barred from running for any position for three years.

Toussaint has coyly suggested that his no-strike statement does not mean the end of transit strikes—after all, intentions can change. That misses the point. After insisting for years that transit workers have a moral right to strike, Toussaint gave Bloomberg a significant political victory.

“He said he’d never do it,” said Josh Fraidstern, a train operator and shop steward in Local 100. “The leadership lost the trust of the membership. They went into full partnership mode with the MTA, and the politicians demanded a surrender in exchange for restoration of the dues check-off.”

Downs is TWU Local 100 chair, Train Operators Division