No Toussaint, No Peace! No Contract . . . Uh, What Contract?
TWU Local 100 president Roger Toussaint goes to jail:
Posted: April 25th, 2006 | Filed under: Grrr!Ever-defiant transit-union chief Roger Toussaint yesterday staged an over-the-top surrender to authorities to begin his brief jail stint at The Tombs — walking across the Brooklyn Bridge surrounded by hundreds of supporters screaming, “No Toussaint, no peace!”
“I would do 30 years before surrendering!” the bleary-eyed president of the Transport Workers Union shouted to a cheering crowd of about 500 in Brooklyn before embarking with the throngs across the bridge to Manhattan.
. . .
He finally showed up outside court in downtown Manhattan at around 7 p.m., with activist Al Sharpton on one arm and teachers union President Randi Weingarten on the other.
Sporting a red union T-shirt with a black TWU jacket, the embattled labor leader bellowed to the crowd — many of whom weren’t even from his 33,000-strong union:
“I stand here because a judge found me guilty of contempt. I have contempt for employers who have kept us down. This is an attack on all working people of this city.”
The union guru then turned to his closest advisers for an emotional hug and said quietly, “All right, I’m ready,” before heading up the steps of the court building at 100 Centre St.
A scuffle briefly broke out between cops and the wife of city Councilman Charles Barron as the crowd jostled around, watching Toussaint being ushered up the steps into the building, one witness said.
“I told him I’d pray for him . . . and I’ll visit him in jail,” said a recording secretary for the union afterward.