Free Republic

Here’s a bit of Labor Day irony. The man who led the historic 2005 bus and subway strike—which forced millions of commuters to squeeze into packed cabs, pedal bicycles they hadn’t used for years and hike to work like intrepid Boy Scouts—is now a licensed cab driver. Roger Toussaint, the fiery former president of Transport Workers Union Local 100, got his permit in December to drive a taxi in Cobb County, Ga., where he now lives, records show. “Driving a cab is a dignified profession,” Toussaint, 55, said during a telephone interview last week. …

Leave it to the transit workers to make the absolutely worst possible move for all the wrong reasons at every turn. In rejecting the deal negotiated by Transport Workers Union President Roger Toussaint by just seven votes, the rank and file yesterday snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. They had blackmailed New York by shutting down the city for three days in an illegal strike, but they just couldn't take yes for an answer. So now they're going to demand heaven knows what behind a leader they have emasculated. The best Toussaint will be able to muster at the...

He was excoriated on tabloid front pages and by the mayor and governor. As thousands streamed across the Brooklyn Bridge on a frigid night during last week's transit strike, someone in a car yelled out his name, prefacing it with a curse. But now, a day after details of an agreement between the transit workers and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority were spelled out, Roger Toussaint, the union's president, seems to have emerged in a far better position than seemed likely just a few days ago. Mr. Toussaint, whose back appeared to be against the wall last week, can boast of...