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Roger and us

By Chuck Bennett | amNewYork Staff Writer

October 10, 2006

It was a "challenge" amNewYork couldn't refuse.

Roger Toussaint, president of the Transport Workers Union Local 100 and the man who ordered last year's three-day strike, asked for a chance to rebut a story amNewYork ran last week about his unusual re-election fund-raising tactic of selling $2 autographed pictures of himself.

Toussaint took umbrage with quotes from straphangers interviewed outside Penn Station who overwhelmingly gave him and his $2 John Hancock a thumbs-down.

So the Trinidad-native challenged amNewYork to walk the streets with him on his turf -- working class, outer borough neighborhoods. The cheers from working men and women, he predicted, would far outweigh the jeers. He allowed amNewYork to pick the neighborhoods.

"They perceive me as one of them," Toussaint said.

amNewYork spent the afternoon Monday with Toussaint riding the trains and walking through the neighborhoods of Astoria, Long Island City and Jackson Heights.

For the most part, people honked their horns, gave thumbs up, patted him on the back, shook his hand, and even asked for photographs.

One woman shouted an obscenity as she climbed the steps of the 30th Avenue station in Astoria, but she was the exception.

Here's how the afternoon played out:

Astoria
Toussaint, 49, met amNewYork shortly after 1 p.m. Earlier he formally announced he would seek a third three-year term as president of the 33,700-member union. His appearance with amNewYork, Toussaint insisted, wasn't a campaign event.

When asked if he expected any lasting anger from the public over the strike -- as found in Penn Station last week -- Toussaint said:

"You are gauging the anger from my interactions in these neighborhoods and you can reassess that," he said.

Indeed, save the one snide comment, Toussaint was alternatively praised or ignored.

A Latino man in a baseball cap outside the 36th Avenue station shouted, "You fight for the people man!" and shook Toussaint's hand.

"That's right," Toussaint replied.

Astoria/Long Island City
The good spirits continued outside the 36th Avenue station.

A man rolled along in a wheelchair and shouted, "Mr. Toussaint, how you doing?" A group of kids in their early teens treated Toussaint as a celebrity once they read his TWU jacket and figured out who he was.

"Give us another one," a teen shouted, referring to the strike. "I didn't have to go to school and wake up early." His pal shouted, "Make four more strikes."

Jackson Heights
En route, Toussaint had to consult the subway map several times. He hasn't committed the system to memory.

The trip gave plenty of time to talk. Toussaint is hopeful that MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow will soon step down if Eliot Spitzer is elected governor. He admitted that his five-way race for re-election is going to be tough.

Toussaint's political foes have long accused of him of being an egotist and firing his staff for not showing loyalty. He dismissed the charge.

"Whether you are a friend or foe I require people to deliver a work product, to work for members' needs," he said. "So if I've been charged with putting people to work, I'm guilty."

Outside the 75th Street-Broadway station in Jackson Heights, Toussaint was again met warmly by people who recognized him.

"Workers need the benefits, they deserve it," said Luis Santos, 64, after greeting Toussaint.