Did I Say “Grassroots”? It’s Basically Grassroots — Or Grassroots Enough

A Newsday article suggests that the supposedly grassroots effort on the part of the TWU Local 100 rank and file to generate support for a revote may not be that “grassroots”:

More questions are emerging about the petitions that are circulating among transit workers calling for a re-vote of their rejected contract.

Leadership of the Transport Workers Union Local 100 paint the petitions as a grassroots movement by workers who feel the MTA’s contract offer — which was rejected by just seven votes in January — is the best they can get.

More than 1,500 workers have signed the petitions, according to news reports.

But other workers say it isn’t a grassroots plan at all — it’s really coming from union president Roger Toussaint.

Tommy Creegan, a vice chairman of the Westchester Square Yard who opposed the rejected contract, said he witnessed a full-time union staffer personally soliciting signatures on a re-vote effort. Three other workers said they all saw the staffer petitoning.

“Don’t put a smokescreen up and pretend it’s grassroots,” Creegan said.

Another worker said he witnessed the same man seeking signatures at work sites in Queensboro Plaza and Corona in Queens.