For years, Haitian members of a bus driver union have complained that Local 1181 Union management fails to reflect their growing numbers. But with the indictment of top officials, Salvatore Battaglia and Julius Bernstein, on racketeering, extorting and bribery charges, Haitians now believe that they may finally have a voice in the union.
Two weeks ago, Robert Baker and Tommy Mullins from the Amalgamated Transit Union, which put Local 1181 in temporary trusteeship, met for the first time with union members to hear their complaints.
They demanded that seniority, medical benefits, pension benefits be guaranteed. They demanded an increase in salary for escorts and pension based on what they put into it.
Among other grievances, members said the board failed to provide workers proper representation when conflict arose with the companies; drivers do not have coverage after paying union dues; matrons receive 40 percent less of their pension; and bus companies hire drivers who lack certification from the Department of Education.
Such grievances prompted local union members to urge the parent union to intervene.
After the December 12 meeting, sources said the new trustees seemed to be open to the idea of a new board in which the dissident group would field several candidates, including some Haitians.
“We want all the delegates and the head of the union to step down for another election to be held,” said Raymon Laroche, who has been fighting since his allies lost the last election to incumbents on the board. “I still don’t trust them.”
“I have mixed feelings about both trustees” said Jonahs Saint Fleur, 38, a 17-year bus driver.
Parent union officials will begin one-on-one sessions with members beginning this week.
During the last 30 years, Haitians have slowly become the majority in the school bus driving and matron industry. According to unofficial report, they account for 50 percent to 65 percent of the 15,000 unionized bus drivers and matrons serving the five buroughs and Westchester, Nassau and Suffolk counties.
While they enjoy some amenities, other tangible benefits are at risk. That prompted Haitians drivers to join a group of other Latino and white colleagues to form Members for Change. Together, they challenged longtime leaders of their union and the parent union Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1181.
“The union was working against us,” Saint Fleur said in response to the complaints that the board has been marred by corruption and that it allows bus companies to not pay workers what has been detailed in the contract.
An original indictment last year against the Local 1181 President Battaglia, 60, alleged that he tried to hide Mafia involvement in the union.
On November 20, in an indictment in United States District Court in Manhattan, Battaglia was charged with racketeering, extortion and bribery, according to federal prosecutors.
Battaglia was arrested the same day at his Staten Island home and released on a $1.5 million bond.
The November indictment alleged that over at least two years, Battaglia and others – identified as the Genovese crime family – agreed with the owners of a number of school bus companies not to organize their workers in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in payoffs from the owners.
It says Battaglia continued to extort the bus companies into 2006, even after he and other union officials were arrested July 2005.
The new charges were followed by several weeks the sealed guilty plea of Local 1181’s secretary treasurer Bernstein, who was also arrested last year.
Even after all these charges, many bus drivers have complained that the parent union took too long to act to clean up the local. “We have to do a lot for the Trustees to come here because of their relationship with Battaglia,” said Jean-Claude Calixte, a 16-year Atlantic Express worker who lost his bid for secretary treasure in the 2005 election.
While election at the union was more of an inside selection because the board members are all related, Haitians’ hope of winning a seat on the board is still a long shot, Haitian members said. Haitian members don’t have the support of their compatriots.
“Haitian union members think Haitian can not run a union,” Saint-Fleur said.
Distrust and language barrier are at the core of the problem.
“The big problem is a lot of Haitians don’t speak English so they don’t go to meetings,” Laroche said.
He explained that around election time the board had its own people steering the Haitians to vote for a candidate. They used the flat ballot – which put all incumbent under one ballot – a process in contradiction with the union construction, members said.
In last year’s election, Members for Change lost by a wide margin. Of the more than 3,000 voters who cast their ballots on June 5, 2,200 members voted for the incumbents and 840 voted for Members for Change candidates.
Some ballots were in dispute and candidates are still challenging the results in front of the Trustees.
The challenge alone of holding elections last year sent a message that the dissidents are fighting for a better organization. It was the union’s second election in its 40-year history.
“We are not doing it because we want jobs. It is because we want change,” said Saint-Fleur who confirms he will not be a candidate at the next election.
“Now we’re working to make Haitian members believe that what we said before the election was true,” said Calixte, who will run again for secretary treasurer for Members for Change. “I think I have the capacity to be a treasurer. And I’ll work to convince fellow Haitians I can do it.”
With an election date not yet set, working with fellow Haitians is what will need to be done to ensure that a union with 80 percent of minorities can have minorities on their board, many of the Haitian activists said.
“I’m very positive there will be a change we’ll not stop until we see it,” Saint-Fleur said.
