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Roger Toussaint of Trinidad and Tobago

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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.