Roger Toussaint Quotes (40 Quotes)

We are very confident that this package will meet with the approval of the members, ... It answers many of their needs, many of their urgent pleas, especially in the area of health coverage.

This is a fight over dignity and respect on the job, a concept that is very alien to the MTA. Transit workers are tired of being underappreciated and disrespected.

We find this decision is unfair.

We will communicate with the MTA the results of this vote and we will reach out to meet with them in the near future.

The members came to doubt that the key benefits of the deal would be forthcoming.

There will be nothing happening in the next few days. It is too early to say what happens now. This will take some time to figure out.

It is a fight over dignity and respect on the job. To our riders, we ask for your understanding.

Unless there is a substantial movement by the authority, trains and buses will come to a halt as of midnight tonight.

The executive board voted to begin a series of strikes, first out on some of the private bus lines and then extending onto MTA properties.

We will not delay this deadline.

The Local 100 executive board has voted overwhelmingly to extend strike action to all MTA properties immediately.

We have no progress to report. That's not good because we have precious little time before the deadline approaches.

I stand here today because a judge has found me guilty of contempt of court. The truth of the matter is that I have nothing but contempt for a system that gives employers free rein to abuse workers.

The clock is ticking and we have almost run out of time. I'm going to leave here and go back to the hotel and give it one more shot.

We tried to bargain with the MTA. We negotiated well past our contract deadline because we wanted to get a deal done and we still do.

The contract they offered would leave the next generation of transit workers behind, and we will not accept that. We have voted to begin a series of strikes that will start with private bus lines and then spread to MTA properties.

If the pension demands ... come off the table, that would go a long way to us resuming the negotiations and resolving the strike.

We thank riders for their patience and forbearance. We will be providing various details regarding the outcome of this strike in the next several days.

We do not appreciate being threatened on public television nonetheless and in front of our children. Even if the governor needs this to appear to be tough to the nation for his own political ambitions, it's inappropriate.

Tonight the executive board voted to begin a series of strikes first out on some of the private bus lines and then extending onto MTA (Metropolitan Transportation Authority) properties.

I will do 30 years before transit workers surrender. Working people have tried to obey the law, and we have gotten nothing but insults for it.

We wake up at 3 and 4 in the morning to move the trains in this town. That's not the behavior of thugs and selfish people.

We got the major items that were important to our members with respect to lifetime medical coverage and with respect to a pension rebate worth a lot of money. We made a concession in respect to the health benefits ... We consider that to be an appropriate and fair resolution to the strike.

We thank our riders for their patience and forbearance.

I'll go in. Jail is not a problem.

This contract between the MTA and the Transport Workers Union should have been a no-brainer. Sadly that has not been the case.

If Gov. Pataki wants to play a constructive role he should get involved in these negotiations, and he should restore money to mass transit because ... the state government has taken out funds from mass transit ... (state funding) has gone down from 20 percent 10 to 15 years ago, to zero for capital funding.

That would go a long way to us resuming the negotiations. We believe that the pension demands put forth by the MTA are illegal, and burden the negotiations.

Despite the fact that there is limited time left, ... we still expect that our contract will be resolved well before midnight tonight.

They're not going to force a lousy contract down our throats. We have told them from the beginning that this contract will be negotiated by bargaining in good faith and not by threats and not by intimidation.

After six years of round-the-clock work to move our union forward, the chance for a little sleep and a rest from my cell phone maybe aren't so bad.

I'd like to thank all the members of Local 100 for their unerring supporting and perseverance in the course of these very difficult past few weeks. We'd also like to thank the riders and working people of New York for their patience, forbearance and understanding, for the equally difficult time spent by this entire city.

New Yorkers, this is a fight over whether hard work will be rewarded with a decent retirement, a fight over the erosion or eventual elimination of health benefit coverage for the working people of New York, it is a fight over dignity and respect on the job.

Our members will stand together and stand firm, and make sure the organization is not broken.

What the MTA has decided to do is pour poison on the deal in order to provide ammunition to the opposition, in hopes of having the contract voted down. It seems as if a decision was made by the state to sink the contract.

My message is let transit workers decide and determine their own fate. Don't get involved in the business and affairs of our union. If you make a deal, stick to it.

An agreement will never ever, ever, ever be resolved by fear and intimidation.

The struggle and defiance and unfortunately sacrifice will be required and will occur and judges need to understand that, the courts need to understand that and the lawmakers need to understand that.

These comments don't sound like the Chairman Kalikow I know. We can only conclude that this is from the governor of New York to the people of New York City from his fund-raiser in New Hampshire.

We paid the price in millions of dollars in fines, 10 times that for our members, and face impending loss of dues check off which is going to hemorrhage the finances of our union. But you cannot take on a fight like this and not get bloodied. We are still here standing before you bloodied but unbowed.