Roger Toussaint, president of Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union, appeared before the microphones at the union hall last night almost three hours after the strike deadline of midnight (which means that all the newspapers are out of date today in terms of info–you’re best bet is to go to New York 1). In announcing the strike, he reiterated the failure of the Metropolitan Transit Authority, which is swimming in a one billion dollar surplus, to move off a proposal that would have instituted a two-tier wage system and forever leave future workers behind, particularly in terms of pension rights. 
So, if the riding public is looking for a reason to rally behind the workers, it’s this: the workers are willing to endure hardship and lost wages so they can protect the economic futures of those people who aren’t even working in the transit system. That’s an admirable step, even if a billionaire mayor can’t grasp the concept.
And that stand is one that will have an effect on the tens of thousands of other public employees who will be targets down the road for the same negotiating ploy–undermine the livelihood of future workers by assuming that current workers won’t put their own livelihood on the line for people they don’t even know. In preparing his members for a strike, and making it clear what’s at stake, Touissant has shown, in my opinion, remarkable leadership.
On the other side, you have the MTA. It is striking to me that the entire MTA negotiating leadership, starting out with it’s chairman Peter Kalikow, is white, while the membership of the union is probably 75 percent black and Hispanic. I don’t think these MTA guys would have been inclined to take the firefighters or police unions to the mat.
There was a bit of tension last night as the deadline passed. A source told me that the union’s board had voted to strike–but its international parent union had refused to authorize the strike. Toussaint made it clear he was going to authorize the strike whether the International union approved or not, and, at least for now, the international officers do not seem poised to try to take over Local 100.
The internal union politics between Local 100 and the International are a mixture of race and political turf. The three top officers of the International are white men, and its president, Mike O’Brien, is the successor to Sonny Hall, who came out of Local 100 which he ruled for many years in a less than democratic fashion. There is no love lost between Hall’s faction and Toussaint–and one insider speculated a scenario where Hall, behind the scenes, might have orchestrated the lack of support for the strike.
What struck me while watching the press wait impatiently for Toussaint to appear was that most of them seem annoyed that they were put out and missing their deadlines. With the exception of a few like Juan Gonzalez of the Daily News and Tom Robbins of the Village Voice, most of the reporters are pretty uninformed about the history of the union and the currents at play.
