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 🔍📷