Union chief goes to jail for NYC transit strike

[Midnight Mike]

Union chief goes to jail for NYC transit strike
Roger Toussaint to serve 10-day sentence for role in December action

The Associated Press
Updated: 8:33 p.m. ET April 24, 2006

NEW YORK - The city's transit union chief on Monday began serving a 10-day sentence for leading last year's transit strike, entering a Manhattan lockup after marching across the Brooklyn Bridge with a boisterous group of supporters.

Roger Toussaint was walked to the door of the jail by the Rev. Al Sharpton and other community leaders around 7 p.m.

The walkout crippled the city just before Christmas last year and violated a state law banning strikes by public employees. A judge ruled that Toussaint should be jailed for 10 days and fined $1,000 for contempt.

"I stand here today because a judge has found me guilty of contempt of court," Toussaint said outside the jail. "The truth of the matter is that I have nothing but contempt for a system that gives employers a free rein to abuse workers."

He said earlier at a rally in his support that he would "do 30 years before transit workers surrender. Working people have tried to obey the law, and we have gotten nothing but insults for it."

The Bob Marley song "Get Up, Stand Up" and cheers from a crowd of dozens greeted Toussaint as he arrived at the rally in Brooklyn before the march across the bridge.

Tens of thousands of New Yorkers had to walk the same route during the three-day strike.

Union leaders addressed the crowd, hailing Toussaint as a working-class hero who stood up for the rights of the common man by demanding fair treatment on pensions, health care and wages.

"We're with you, Roger," Sharpton told the crowd. "We will be there every step of the way."

Sharpton, who called the punishment an immoral attempt to intimidate workers, promised to hold a vigil on the union boss' first night in jail. He said he would stay in a tent outside the jail to protest.

The 60-hour strike ended without a contract between Transport Workers Union Local 100 and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the state agency that runs the bus and subway system.

Union members voted last week to approve an offer they had rejected in January, but the MTA has said it doesn't have to accept the vote because the dispute is in binding arbitration.

The 33,000-member union was fined $2.5 million for the strike and plans to appeal.

Gov. George Pataki, at an appearance Monday in the city, said he wanted people to remember the plight of Matthew Long, a firefighter who was seriously injured when he was run over by a vehicle while bicycling to work during the strike.

"I would prefer that the people of New York think and pray of the firefighter who has gone through many operations and faces many more before he can walk, instead of someone who actually provoked this illegal action," Pataki said.

[RDU-JFK]

10 days isn't enough for that *******

[cancidas]

the guy's an ass, to hold a rally against being put in jail for the **** he did is really low! i'm sure at least 3/4 of nyc wants to kick his ass...

[PhilDernerJr]

10 days isn't enough for that *******

'Nuff said.

[Tom_Turner]

<<Gov. George Pataki, at an appearance Monday in the city, said he wanted people to remember the plight of Matthew Long, a firefighter who was seriously injured when he was run over by a vehicle while bicycling to work during the strike.>>

Now thats pretty low.

[Matt Molnar]

<<Gov. George Pataki, at an appearance Monday in the city, said he wanted people to remember the plight of Matthew Long, a firefighter who was seriously injured when he was run over by a vehicle while bicycling to work during the strike.>>

Now thats pretty low.

If not for the strike, the bus wouldn't have been on the road and Long wouldn't have been riding his bike to work. Sure, it's probably too big a stretch for a court to hold the union liable for his injuries, but it is a nice gesture for the Governor to acknowledge Long's suffering and call out the guy whose crime had a hand in it.

According to today's Post, Long was quite upset to see the head of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association, Peter Gorman, marching across the bridge with Toussaint while Long is crippled in a hospital bed. Long called Gorman to complain, and Gorman hung up on him. The head of the union Long actually belongs to, the Uniformed Firefighters Association, did not participate in the march.

[Tom_Turner]

Cyclist Hurt? Blame the Transit Strike

By Sarah Ferguson | April 25, 2006

Burnishing his anti-union credentials, Governor George Pataki has taken to blaming Transit Workers Union leader Roger Toussaint for the plight of city firefighter Matthew Long. The firefighter was critically injured when he was struck by a privately chartered bus while riding his bike during the December transit strike.

Now he "cannot walk because of a horrible accident that occurred while this strike, this illegal strike, was on," Pataki said Monday, as reported in the Daily News.

The firefighter's mom also took a swipe at Toussaint, calling the union leader's 10-day jail term, which began Monday night, "a pittance" compared to the 120 days her son has spent in the hospital enduring multiple surgeries to mend his shattered bones and serious internal injuries. (Long's father is state Conservative Party leader Michael Long--no union lover there.)

True, Long, a triathlete and 12-year FDNY veteran, would not have been pedaling to work on that freezing morning if the trains and buses had been running.

But what about the role of the bus driver who allegedly made an illegal turn and plowed into Long on Third Avenue at 52nd Street, dragging Long and his bike under the bus? Police reportedly issued a summons to the driver for "making an improper right turn from a lane other than the right lane." So why isn’t Pataki going after him?

Or what about the bus company, Allen A.M.E. Transportation Corporation, a subsidiary of Reverend Floyd Flake's Greater Allen A.M.E. church in Jamaica, Queens? Last December, the bus company's lawyer had the gall to blame Long for the crash, claiming the firefighter had ridden into the bus. ("The bus didn't strike the bicyclist," the lawyer said. "The bicyclist struck the side of the bus.")

At least Long's family is spreading the blame around. In addition to gunning for jail time for Toussaint, they're suing the driver, the bus company, Bear Stearns--which chartered the bus to ferry its employees to work during the strike--and the Transit Workers Union.

But this willingness to dump a tragic accident, caused by what appears to be reckless driving, on the transit strike ignores just how frequently cyclists get hit in the city under normal circumstances. Last year some 3,200 cyclists were struck by motor vehicles, according to the NYPD. That's not even getting into the rash of pedestrians getting hit.

The vast majority of drivers in those accidents received no punishment at all.

Yes, there were more folks riding bikes during the strike. But Long was hit at 5:48 a.m. in Midtown, at a time when City Hall's heavy-handed traffic restrictions were keeping many drivers out of Manhattan. That should just as easily have made the streets more safe for riding, not less.

[vendor]

Hmm, small world... Last week when I was flying back from Boston (after the Boston Marathon), I sat next to a firefighter who was a friend of Matt Long and was running it on his behalf

[Tower Air]

He's out