Local 100 Fightback Protests Against Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court

The Republicans’ push to install Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court is a grave threat to the rights of all working-class people. He’s another Trump, but in a judge’s robes. He’s committed to further overturning civil rights, women’s rights, and workers’ rights to join a union. And he’s committed to handing the President unprecedented dictatorial powers. He’s a racist, sexist hit-man in the interests of white supremacy and corporate profiteering. (To learn more about Kavanaugh, see our suggested readings below.)

Local 100 Fightback is proud that we supported and participated in the protests against Kavanaugh’s confirmation. We were pleased to see retired Track worker John McCarthy protesting – it’s a credit to him that he regularly participates in such efforts and perhaps other individual Local 100 members participated. Surely more would have mobilized if it wasn’t for the shameful fact that neither our union, nor any other grouping in Local 100, called for members to mobilize. All the other groupings inside Local 100 continue to be exclusively focused on trying to grab power for themselves in the upcoming union elections, just like they failed to mobilize to challenge MTA President Andy Byford at his recent Community Meeting in Brooklyn.

At yesterday’s protest outside Trump Tower, Local 100 Fightback’s Anthony Steiniger and Seth Rosenberg (Train Operators) carried placards warning of the attacks on the rights of people of color, women and unions that Kavanaugh’s confirmation will mean, and condemning the leaders of the union movement for failing to mobilize in protest.

And at another protest, Local 100 Fightback’s Tom Gruttemeyer (Train Operator) and John Ferretti (Conductor) explained why they were there:

(Video at: https://youtu.be/ldd-Xji2moY)

Local 100 Fightback’s began its “Open Call for a United Opposition to Utano & Co.” by making the point that the attacks that transit workers face from local political powers are inseparable from the rise to power of Trump’s racist Republicans in Washington. Our union leadership refuses to support and mobilize for protests against Trump because it needs to keep us feeling powerless to oppose their capitulation to attacks coming from management and Cuomo’s Democrats.

In fact as protests were building against Trump’s push to take over the Supreme Court, our Transport Workers Union announced that it was officially throwing its support behind Trump’s most powerful political supporter in New York City, racist Staten Island Congressman Dan Donovan. SHAME! In the name of its “New York Conference,” the TWU issued a press release on October 1 announcing its “enthusiastic endorsement” for the man who paved his way to Congress by rigging the Grand Jury hearings for the police who choked to death Eric Garner in Staten Island so that the murderers got away with their crime.

ABOVE: Disgraceful statement by the leaders of the Transport Workers Union "enthusiastically endorsing" racist Trump-supporting Republican Dan Donovan for Congress.

The TWU’s endorsement of Donovan is another reminder of why the Utano leadership of Local 100 and the Samuelsen leadership of the TWU must be thrown out. And the failure of Local 100’s other oppositional groupings to support and participate in the protests against Kavanaugh is another reminder of why we must build a movement inside Local 100 that doesn’t just talk about social justice, but fights for our union to join in every struggle in defense of working-class and oppressed people.

* To learn more about Kavanaugh’s anti-union and racist plans for the Supreme Court, these articles provide a great introduction: www.newrepublic.com/article/122645/rehabilitationists-libertarian-movement-undo-new-deal and www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/09/redemption-court/566963/. And for a detailed account of the many lies that Kavanaugh told the Senate in response to the mounting evidence that he committed numerous acts of sexual assault, read: www.currentaffairs.org/2018/09/how-we-know-kavanaugh-is-lying.

Among all the groupings of candidates in the upcoming elections, Local 100 Fightback's candidates began building unity in REAL FIGHTBACKS AGAINST MANAGEMENT ATTACKS on members. Here, Anthony Staley (Candidate for Stations VP and John Ferretti who's putting himself forward to be RTO VP) discuss their work together in recent fights against jobs cuts and unsafe work.

Eric “Eddy” Loegel – Local 100 Members Need Unity, Not Your Ugly Lies!

By Seth Rosenberg, T/O

Transit workers’ jobs, wages and benefits are what’s really on the ballot in the upcoming Local 100 elections. The politicians and management are planning to make us pay for the transit crisis with massive job cuts and other attacks, and our union’s leaders are openly collaborating with them. That’s why members want unity more than ever. Unity among candidates they can trust to lead in defense of our interests.

THOSE ARE THE ISSUES THAT CANDIDATES SHOULD BE FOCUSED ON.

That’s why members from different divisions launched Local 100 Fightback with an ‘Open Call’ for members to meet and vote on the candidates and program for a united opposition. And WE BEGAN REACHING OUT TO THE MAIN OPPOSITION LEADERS MONTHS AGO.

Now Progressive Action’s candidate for RTO VP, Eric ‘Eddy’ Loegel has responded to us with a spit-spray of lies across social media. It’s sad to see a man who once stood for high ideals now stooping so low. We want to focus on the important issues, but we won’t let people get away with lying about us. Who would?

I’ll just respond to one of Loegel’s bald-faced lies now: his claim, repeated in different

places, that our call for unity is fake because we never reached out to him and Progressive Action:

The bad news for ‘Eddy’ is that I’ve got all the PROOF to show that he and Trammel Thompson were THE FIRST PEOPLE WE REACHED OUT TO! We did it in writing, for all to see, ALMOST SIX MONTHS AGO!

And I’ve got their response, too:

They said THEY’d NEVER UNITE WITH US

THEY SAID THEY DON’T WANT THE MEMBERS TO DECIDE WHO THEIR CANDIDATES ARE

And to justify their rejection of unity they launched a vicious smear campaign culminating in threats of violence.

No wonder Eric ‘Eddy’ wants to pretend none of this happened.

First, I’ll give a quick summary of the back-and-forth between us and Trammel and Eric ‘Eddy’ and after that, for those interested, I’ll present a blow-by-blow account. And of course, I’ll present all the PROOF with screenshots and links 😁.

On April 18 of this year, after John Ferretti posted in Progressive Action’s facebook group a call to action in defense of Conductors’ jobs that had been cut, Trammel Thompson wrote asking him whether he’d run in the upcoming elections with Progressive Action “under Eric Eddy.” John answered:

“... my answer,in short, is YES, of course. I would run under Eric Eddy on a platform ofworkers’ unity against management attacks and for social justice IF THAT’S WHATWORKERS DECIDE. … Will Trammel be true to his promise to build an oppositiondeciding things like a democratic union, by the workers meeting and voting?”

John then published a full public statement on April 22: “For a united opposition to Utano & Co., let the workers decide!”

Trammel and ‘Eddy’ apparently never expected Ferretti to answer “yes” because their response went from self-exposing, to bizarre, to down-right crazed.

Trammel rejected the idea of members meeting to decide on the candidates and program of a united opposition, insisting that “as a leader I believe [in] making the tough and executive decisions on who I feel will be better suited for whatever position.”

Eric ‘Eddy’ denounced the idea of members making the decisions in a united opposition, calling it an “absurd demand” in follow-ups. Commenting on Ferretti’s call for

a united opposition, Eddy bragged that he could knock down all the points that John made. But as anyone can see from clicking on that link, six months later Eddy is still cursing but is yet to even try to knock down one of Ferretti’s points. Not one. Maybe he just hasn’t had the time. Or maybe all Loegel can do is curse and lie. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Trammel made a fool of himself by denying that he ever asked Ferretti to run with PA, even though he’d done it in writing, and even though he’d also asked Ferretti to run with him in public, in a video that can still be watch on Progressive Action’s social media platforms! It seems Trammel realized how he had embarrassed himself by denying what he had said on video and written on the internet, because he’s since deleted that comment – but we have a screenshot below 😊.

Trammel and Loegel added that they’d never run with Ferretti, excusing this with the silly lie that Ferretti supposedly didn’t pay for a bill at a Progressive Action event months earlier that Ferretti has already exposed as not true (but I might return to in the future since it was actually me that they thought didn’t pay and I have the receipt to prove that I paid.)

Then things got really ugly, after Ferretti led a small protest of Platform Conductors outside the union hall to demand action against job cuts, and Tony Utano’s gun-toting enforcer Shannon Poland broke the protest up by pushing and shoving female Local 100 members in an attempt to get to Ferretti to “kick his ass.” Poland was only stopped by the brave actions of retired Local 100 member John McCarthy.

Trammel then responded in writing and especially in a crazy bizzare, rambling video to say he had no problem with Poland’s violent attack on Ferretti and that John deserves to be beaten up. He made clear that his only concern was that he did not want anyone to defend John the next time someone attacks him!

AND NOW ERIC ‘EDDY” TRIES TO SAY HE AND TRAMMEL STAND FOR UNITY AND THAT WE NEVER REACHED OUT TO THEM!

So let’s tell Eric ‘Eddy’ – Local 100 members need unity, not your ugly lies.

Our call for a united opposition to Utano & Co. put forward our ideas for how Local 100 can be rebuilt as a democratically organized union with accountable leaders and a membership mobilized in solidarity against management and the politicians’ attacks and for social justice. Those are the issues we should be discussing. And those are ideas worth voting for in the elections for Local 100’s leadership. 💪

📷🔎 Here are all the screenshots proving who reached out for unity and who is dividing the members with lies 🔍📷

Attention Local 100 Members! For Solidarity & Justice – An Open Call to Discuss a United, Democratic Opposition to Utano & Co.

Elections for Local 100’s leadership are fast approaching and the members face a grave crisis.

State and city politicians along with management are openly preparing unprecedented attacks on transit workers’ jobs and working conditions, including mass layoffs and demands for more givebacks. Meanwhile in Washington, Trump and the Republicans are whipping up racism and waging a war against civil rights and the labor movement.

As these threats to transit workers grow, our union is burdened by a corrupt leadership that is more interested in keeping hold of their positions of privilege and power than organizing resistance. Now headed by unelected Local 100 President Tony Utano, Local 100’s leaders are continuing their corrupt alliance with Governor Cuomo. Just as they forced the Tier 6 pension rip-off and other givebacks on Local 100 members, they are conspiring with the politicians and management to sell us out again. And they are working to keep the members passive, even refusing to mobilize members for mass protests against Trump and the Republicans.

To keep hold of power, Utano & Co. rule the union by undemocratic means. They’ve removed elected leaders from office on trumped-up charges and appointed cronies to positions of power. Lately we’ve even seen violence and physical intimidation used against militant Local 100 members!

It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way

We shouldn’t take this anymore. With its majority Black, Latino and immigrant membership, Local 100’s members make this city run, and if we’re pushed we can shut it down in defense of our jobs and working conditions. The powers-that-be need to fear that potential if we are to force them to back off their attacks. And we could – if we had a leadership that was democratically accountable to the membership at every step and committed to mobilizing our power; a leadership that stands for an uncompromising defense of the interests of transit workers, wins public support by really opposing fare hikes and service cuts, and supports all struggles for social justice.

This December’s union elections give members the chance to throw out our union’s sellout bureaucrats and elect new leaders that can offer hope for a way forward. But it won’t be easy. We have many challenges to overcome – and fast.

Unions should be organizations for workers’ collective defense of their interests. But our current officials treat the union as a machine through which they can rise to enjoy management-like positions, with management-like paychecks, at the members’ expense! Today, our union’s officials make more than the highest paid workers do for a 40-hour work week. The fact that they are paid salaries that are not tied to members’ wages and conditions means they can accept lousy wage deals and other givebacks without feeling the effects themselves. Furthermore, the top union bureaucrats encourage the lower-level officials to help them screw the members over by promising to reward them with promotions into the bureaucracy’s pecking order of rising salaries and other perks.

With a union officialdom organized like this, it’s no wonder our current leaders so readily embrace the bosses’ divide and conquer attacks. Two infamous examples of this are how they stuck new-hires with the Tier 6 pension rip-off and entrenched management’s discrimination against cleaners by accepting their being singled out to start work at a lower percentage of their top-rate pay than all other transit workers. And of course there are many other instances that could be pointed to.

We can’t afford to keep a leadership that uses the union to get ahead at the members’ expense.

We need a leadership that is committed to being accountable to the members in every way, with salaries that don’t see them profiting out of the members’ dues and that only rise or fall with those of the members. We need a leadership that is commitment to democratic decision-making at every level of the union, always encouraging debate and opposing censorship, violence and intimidation.

And we need a leadership that is committed to uniting the members against the politicians’ and bosses’ attacks. That means recognizing that in the struggle to defend and improve the conditions of all members, a priority must be made to raise the conditions of transit workers who have been stuck with “second class” and “third class” wages and benefits. And it means championing the interests of members who face systematic discrimination, especially women workers.

A Way Forward

The sad state of affairs in Local 100 means that when it comes to union elections it’s difficult for members to tell the difference between phony opportunists and real opponents of the current leadership’s treachery. We’ve already seen many times in the past how some candidates talk like they’re concerned for the members but really just want the same money and power as the current bureaucrats. Other candidates could really offer an alternative of a democratic union with accountable leaders committed to mobilizing our power to defend our interests and support broader struggles of workers for justice. So we need to make the differences between candidates clear.

Moreover, the coming elections hold the danger that multiple candidates challenging Utano & Co. will unnecessarily split the opposition vote and allow the old guard to win despite how widely they’re hated. Instead of giving the members a chance to decide, some would-be candidates against Utano & Co. have simply declared themselves “THE OPPOSITION” and demanded that no one else run in the elections to challenge the incumbents. But there’s still time for them to end this divisive approach.

So what can be done to start to make the differences between fake and real opponents of the sellout leaders clear? How can we avoid the danger of unnecessary vote-splitting allowing Utano & Co. to stay in power?

To try to answer these questions, a number of Local 100 office-holders and former office-holders, Shop Stewards and militants from a variety of different backgrounds, have come together to call on all serious opponents of Utano & Co. to participate in meetings to discuss and decide on whether we can build a united opposition based on clear fight-back principles. We want to focus on the future so for members to participate in these meetings we won’t demand agreement on past issues. We do, however, reserve the right to require that anyone wishing to participate in the meetings agree in advance to basic principles of union democracy and solidarity that we regard as essential for anyone to be considered fit to hold union office.

Because we need a movement of the members from below and not just an election slate, these meetings should be open to all members committed to working to build such an alternative to Utano & Co., and not just potential candidates.

These meetings should discuss and vote on a program of basic principles that all candidates would be sworn to uphold, and then vote on what candidates should run for what positions.

There’s no guarantee that we’ll succeed. But we must try. A Local-wide slate would be a great achievement. Even divisional slates would be a big step forward, allowing for a united election campaign that offers a clear alternative for the members.

All Local 100 members who agree with this call are encouraged to attend meetings starting this weekend, September 8. For more information, contact us at Local100Fightback@gmail.com.