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Roger Toussaint of Trinidad and Tobago
Roger Toussaint

Roger Toussaint - NY Transit Workers' Chief an Activist

NY Transit Workers' Chief an Activist
Fri Dec 13, 1:40 PM ET

By LUKAS I. ALPERT, Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK - Whether protesting the government in his native Trinidad
as a teen or battling public officials as head of the city transit
workers union, Roger Toussaint does not back down.

Toussaint, 46, has emerged as a key figure in the fierce negotiations
over the next contract for 34,000 bus and subway drivers in the
Transport Workers Union Local 100.

Toussaint's election in 2000 "was a pretty clear indication that
union members wanted someone who was less accommodating to
management," said Richard Steier, editor of The Chief, a weekly
newspaper that follows public employee unions.

Toussaint reigns in the mold of legendary transit union boss Mike
Quill, who greeted Mayor John Lindsay on inauguration day 1966 with a
12-day transit strike. Like Quill — who, in a thick Irish brogue,
consistently mispronounced Lindsey's name as "Linsley" — Toussaint
has become an irritant for current Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

"Mayor Bloomberg should shut up," he said after the mayor called for
heavy fines against the union and its members in case of a strike
next week.

Toussaint has promised to bring his experience as an activist in
Trinidad to the nation's largest city.

"I stood my ground down there, and I am not going to back down to
fear and intimidation tactics by the transit authority," he said.

Born in 1956 in the British-ruled country, Toussaint was one of nine
children in a one-room house. As a teen, he became active in fighting
the postcolonial regime that took over in 1962.

He was arrested at 17 for writing "Free Education" and "Free Books"
on walls near his school. After leaving Trinidad a year later to
escape its "atmosphere of harassment and retaliation," he landed in
Brooklyn.

At Brooklyn College, he joined protests against cutbacks and
supporting minority student programs. A welder at the Brooklyn Navy
Yard, Toussaint joined the Metropolitan Transportation Authority when
the city's shipping industry dwindled.

He started as a cleaner in 1984, moving up to track worker. The
gadfly soon became an annoyance to both the MTA and the union,
creating a newsletter that aired workers' grievances but criticized
alleged union inaction.

Toussaint didn't hold an official union post until 1994, and only
rose to power with the help of an anti-establishment union faction.
That movement gained momentum in 1999 after criticizing leadership
for agreeing to the contract that expires Monday.

"They were very critical of their predecessors," said Gene Russianoff
of the Straphangers Campaign commuter group. "They really felt the
old leadership wasn't being aggressive enough."

The contract was ultimately ratified, but Toussaint easily ousted
union chief Willie James the following year. The union was soon
walking a harder line — including last weekend's vote by members to
authorize a strike if contract talks fail.