Mass Membership Meeting 2011

The annual TWU Local 100 Mass Membership Meeting (MMM) was held last week at the Roseland ballroom, one half block away from the current Union offices at 1700 Broadway. In many respects it was mostly unremarkable. After you have been involved in the Union for a few years they all seem to run together. To tell you the truth, you could not probably tell the difference from one MMM to another if you had your eyes closed at any of them.  It doesn’t matter who is running the show. It usually breaks down into a few well-worn time tested categories and clichés.                

In contract years it is mainly about how the Union will get a fair and equitable contract and how we need not be afraid of the big bad MTA. This year was no different. In non-contract years, it is mainly about how well we are doing as a Union. The subtitle would be, ‘look what a great President I am.’ Most of the recent non-contract year Mass Membership Meetings have been about such topics, with the possible exception of 2010 in which a new administration replaced a long-standing administration.  

What really separates one MMM from the other are the antics. There are always plenty of antics. It is a veritable circus. Members trying to make themselves noticed or in many cases notable. Not surprisingly there was no shortage of antics at this go ‘round.

The sheer numbers of members who arrive with a snarl on their face is incredible, these people seem to desire attention, first and foremost.  Their public stance is ‘I’m here but I’m not happy’ except when it comes to getting a gift bag from one of the many tables set up at the MMM. Their stony exterior seems to change. As always numerous free gifts were available from TWU special projects and from invited vendors and this MMM was no different. What also never changes is the level of desperation that members show for a few cheap trinkets. Bag trinkets at that. After all how many key chains can one have?                

One of the highlights or lowlights of every Mass Membership Meeting is the obligatory question and answer session which usually follows close to the end of the show. In the Toussaint days, they used to give every member an index card to write a question down for the President. Signaling that everyone would have an equal opportunity to ask a question of the President.

The first time they did it the question they chose was something no one cared about. In fact, everyone thought it was a fix, a set up where they manufactured a softball question not to embarrass the President. The Javits center roared with laughter at the question that was chosen. Rather it roared with laughter that our Union leadership actually thought their members were stupid enough to believe that this was a legitimate question.

The second time the Toussaint administration asked for questions, there was an organized effort by at least half of the members at the meeting to all write the same question down. Surely they figured that if half the people wrote the same question, it would almost be a certainty that it would be heard. This was a Mass Membership Meeting where Toussaint was hooted and booed - seemingly at every turn, they never answered any questions and said they ran out of time before they could get to any questions. By the end of the reign, in his third Mass Membership Meeting, they stopped the charade altogether.                

Last years’ Mass Membership Meeting had a ‘Town Hall’ style event based on the solidarity fund where pro and anti-solidarity fund members basically yelled at each other and critics of Samuelsen got to take their pot-shots in public. That ‘town hall’ style meeting, while ambitious, was essentially futile. No one really listened to each other and each side became more entrenched in opinion. The antics that year came from the former Secretary Treasurer who marched around with his own little entourage.

This years’ Mass Membership Meeting had a question and answer period full of interesting antics as well: a former shop steward in RTO made the accusation that ‘Democracy’ was not being practiced in TWU Local 100. The fact he was able to make that accusation actually proved him wrong if you really think of it. After all you are standing in the yearly MMM making a derogatory comment towards the President on a microphone, it sounds like Union Democracy is working out pretty well.                

The other antics came from a former VP of CED who repeatedly yelled ‘you lied, you lie, you lie’ in reference to the option for a membership vote in regards to a new Union Hall purchase in Brooklyn, his point was that there should be a members vote in regards to the building sale. Members’ votes are good, let there be no mistake on that, but this issue was decided by the TWU Local 100 Executive Board and according to the TWU Constitution, the executive board is the highest decision making body in the Union. The Executive Board are the representatives of the members in most decision making situations. That is the way the constitution and bylaws are written.

Besides this faulty interpretation of the bylaws and constitution, this former VP also was handing what could be described as ‘future’ campaign literature out at the entrance of the Roseland Ballroom, greeting members as they came in. This too is a pretty standard antic at MMMs. This literature was not declaring a run for any office but did highlight the individual in question prominently, and in Local 100 political history is a usual precursor to an electoral bid.

But aside from the non-event antics there were two significant proceedings that were wholly positive and signaled a change for the better in TWU local 100. The first was the appointment of Celeste Kirkland to a Vice Chair position in MOW. Ms. Kirkland is among the one or two women who have risen to the heights of such a position in such a male dominated division. She is truly a trailblazer in her department. The decision to elevate her to that position is a large feather in the cap of this administration.

The second noteworthy event was a motion passed from the floor at the MMM which in and of itself never really happens at these things. Martin Goodman, long-time Union radical made the motion to make one of our demands, the re-hiring of any of the still laid-off members who were laid-off in the 2010-2011 period. The fact that this motion even got on the floor is a radical departure from business as usual in L100. Needless to say, it was passed overwhelmingly.