SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES:

ROGER TOUSSAINT

Roger Toussaint served as the president of the Transport Workers Union Local 100 (TWU Local 100) in New York City from January 2001 through December 2009.  TWU Local 100 is the largest transportation union in the United States. It represents all hourly subway workers in NYC and the majority of employees in the New York City Transit's Department of Buses in four of five boroughs in NYC.  TWU Local 100 also represents employees in numerous private companies from NY to Westchester and lower Connecticut, including private bus companies, paratransit schedulers, school buses, and shuttle bus services. 

Toussaint started working for New York City Transit (NYCT), a key part of the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), in 1984 as a cleaner, then became a track worker before he was elected Chairperson of the 1900-member Track Department in 1995, which he served for 6 years before becoming president of Local 100.  While serving as Chairperson of the Track Department, Toussaint was fired from NYCT two and a half years before being overwhelmingly elected president of TWU Local 100.

Toussaint led NYCT transit workers during the historic 3-day transit strike that shut down NYC in December 2005.  The strike inspired millions of working people around NYC and the US, galvanized broad support for transit workers on the picket line, and ultimately led to a major win for Local 100.  State courts later used New York's Taylor Law to impose fines and other penalties against Local 100 and personally against Toussaint and two other senior leaders of Local 100. The penalties included forfeiture of Local 100's right to receive automatic dues deductions from employee paychecks. That forfeiture was eventually reversed by the courts 18 months later, in the fall of 2008.

Toussaint represented TWU Local 100 as a trustee on the New York City Employees Retirement System (NYCERS) and led contract negotiations during his 9-year tenure as president. He subsequently served as International Vice President and Director of Strategic Planning at the TWU International Union from 2009 until 2012, when he retired from TWU.  In addition, Toussaint served as Vice Chair of the Urban Transport committee of the International Transport Federation; and served on the Executive Council of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists. 

JOSHUA B. FREEMAN

Joshua B. Freeman is distinguished Professor Emeritus of History at Queens College, the Graduate Center, and the School of Labor and Urban Studies, CUNY.  His books include In Transit: The Transport Workers Union in New York City, 1933-1966; Working-Class New York: Life and Labor since World War II; and, as editor, City of Workers, City of Struggle: How Labor Movements Changed New York. His latest book, Garden Apartments: The History of a Low-Rent Utopia, will be published by the University of Chicago Press in late December 2025.

KAFUI ATTOH

Kafui Attoh is Associate Professor of Urban Studies at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies.  Professor Attoh received his B.A. from Macalester College and his Ph.D in Geography from Syracuse University.  His broad interests are in the political economy of cities, the politics of public space and debates in and around the idea of the “right to the city.”  He is the author of Rights in Transit: Public Transportation and the Right to the City in California’s East Bay (University of Georgia Press 2019).