Blame Bush For “Bring It On” Bluster

In this week’s New York Magazine TWU Local 100 President Roger Toussaint deftly distracts us — and his rank-and-file — with an alternative narrative that the strike was somehow Bloomberg’s fault:

Bloomberg, in Toussaint’s mind, piled on, exacerbating the situation in the run-up to the strike. “It was his description of us as being ingrates,” says Toussaint, “and the irony of a billionaire presenting himself as the one understanding the working poor.”

Though Bloomberg — “a man,” Toussaint notes, “who invited me to his house for dinner” — was not directly involved in the negotiations, Toussaint singles him out. “Bloomberg did more bullying than Pataki,” he says. “I can’t imagine that he would use that choice of words” — thuggish, particularly — “if he is describing a white labor leader.”

A mayor who’d had remarkable success in defusing race as an issue seemed to Toussaint to have made an about-face. And this was in dealing with a union whose membership is 70 percent minority. To Toussaint, Bloomberg seemed more intent on burnishing his legacy: “‘I was tougher than Koch,'” says Toussaint, imagining the mayor’s thoughts. “‘I was a greater businessman than Giuliani.'”

The hard words of officials fueled worker anger. “If you repeatedly disrespect the transit workers and call them names, and don’t appreciate what we do and the sacrifices that we make, it doesn’t help a resolution,” says Toussaint. “As the attacks intensified, it didn’t have the effect of intimidating the members, it had the effect of making them more radical, wanting some type of action.”

In other words, sure, pension contributions, disciplinary actions and health care contributions were all pertinent negotiation topcis, but it was the Mayor — the one who doesn’t negotiate with the TWU, mind you — who really precipitated this.

And Toussaint, you see, had no choice:

Two days before the strike, Toussaint polled his membership: Seventy-three percent wanted to strike. “That is a pretty shocking number,” notes Toussaint. The rank and file wanted “to push back against those who push all the time,” he says. “The sentiment became ‘Bring it on.'”

Thanks, W., I knew that phrase would become a problem . . .