Boomer;
Yes its true that Chuck and I have been involved with Local 100 in trying to reform the TWU.
My involvement started at the Convention. I'd urged Bobby Gless- who was Local 562 President at the time- to join in the reform movement at the Convention but he was too busy at the Craps tables to be bothered. During the Convention Local 100 was the only thing that kept it from being a complete sham, it was still a sham but Local 100 put up resistance against Sonny Halls tyranny.
Sonny's moves against us are dual in purpose, one is because of actions we took as a result of the sellout at AA and the other a move to eliminate allies of Local 100 in an attempt to isolate them.
Sonny would love to do the same to Local 100, the problem is if Sonny did try that,it could blow up in his face. Local 100 is structured different from us. The deposed leadership could start a decertification drive and establish a new union and leave. Since these 38000 workers are concentrated and all in one local this could be done in a matter of weeks. In Local 100 the leadership is chosen by and supported by the members. Our top leadership is actually the ATD, none of them are elected by the membership. Since no single local could ever initiate a decertification drive in the AA-ATD and all the power is centered in the International controlled and appointed ATD no real leadership that was opposed to Sonny could ever develop. If any did, like us, he could isolate and remove, as he has done.
This structure in the AA-ATD not only limits resistance but the only real way any decertification drive could ever take place is one that is grass roots in nature. No one AA/ATD local could ever lead an exodus from under the International. Thats why Sonny likes having all these small Locals. Its also why the company agrees to facilitate so many Localsand pay the Presidents salaries. Technically this is what company unions used to do and the practice was banned in either the LMRDA or Taft Hartley, I'm not sure which.
As long as there are so many Locals all bound into one agreement that Sonny in effect has complete control over the company benifits. In the meantime the members are caught in a vicious cycle. The ATD leaders who have control make sweetheart deals with management, get the presidents to sell it, when the deficiencies of the agreement are revealed the International deflects blame to local presidents, the members vote out the presidents and the International gets a fresh crop of Presidents to hoodwink again.
Until the development of the internet, which makes mass communication over vast distances easy, grass roots movements were difficult to sustain. The internet in effect brings transparency and power to the members. Sonny refuses or is incapable of adapting. This will cost the Union dearly, first he will lose the dispatchers, then the mechanics, then maybe Fleet Service, somewhere in between he may lose SWA Flight Attendants, that pretty much leaves Local 100 in charge.
Too bad we will not be around to see his regime toppled. Maybe then the legacy of Mike Quill will be restored. Rojer Toussaint is a labor leader with powerful convictions. Unlike Sonny Hall and his regime he actually believes in the membership. Ive heard statements from various International leaders that show that they feel contempt towards the people they represent. Rojer mobilizes often and has to rent out places like the Javits Center to have indoor meetings. When he has rallys you see a sea of people, I participated in the March Across the Bridge last December as contract talks heated up between the TA and the Union. It was a solid line of people 20 ft across the entire length of the Brooklyn Bridge. At city hall there were so many people that the streets were all blocked off and you could not even see the podium. It was the countdown and none of knew if there was going to be a strike, we did not know how we were going to get home, but it was great!
In the meantime Sonny Hall was stabbing Local 100 in the back, saying that if they struck they were "on their own". He was working in behalf of the Transit Authority. I guess that Sonny did not talk to the Central Labor Council, because they were downtown on the podium offering their full support to the roar of the crowd, this could partially explain Sonnys abscence from this years Labor day parade.
Sonny Hall is a vindictive coward of a man. He is the true enemy of labor. He profits off our dues while doing the employers bidding. He has done more damage to the labor movement than any ultra right wing RTW sub Mason-Dixie line Republican. During my whole suspension and trial process he refused to take my phone calls, answer my letters or even face me during my trial. His charges included posts that were made prior to when I met face to face with him in May of this year. He gave no indication that he objected to my posts at that time. He testified against me to the IEB without ever adressing me face to face about those charges or offering me the opportunity to defend myselfbefore that same board. It is actions such as his, that once made public, drive support for laws that bind up labor unions. He maintains that by making this public, that we are "helping the enemies of labor", I maintain that it is the act, not the revelation of the act, that does the damage.
