Facility Short on A-C
B'klyn Rail Yard Too Darn Hot

By GINGER ADAMS OTIS

Scorching heat and suffocating humidity had Car Inspectors and Car Cleaners at New York City Transit's East New York Rail Yard begging for relief last week as temperatures in their airless repair shop topped 100 degrees.

The Chief-Leader/Ginger Adams Otis SWEATING IT OUT: Car Inspectors at New York City Transit's East New York barn say temperatures in the non-air-conditioned repair shop reach dangerous heights during the summer. NYC Transit installed eight heating and ventilation units on the shop roof nearly 10 years ago, but has yet to hook up the compressors that would turn them into air-conditioners.

Only two sections of the massive two-story East New York building are air-conditioned - the cafeteria and locker room that take up a small portion of the second floor, and the supervisors' offices that are underneath.

Fans the Only Relief

The rest of the space is a one-room open work area where some 300 employees do daily car inspections and cleaning. The room is equipped with several small fans along a back wall - each about a foot wide - and 24 skylights that flood it with sunshine. It can hold up to 10 cars at a time.

JOHN SIMINO: Can't escape hot air.

"The skylights are great, but they provide no air. The roof does have eight heating and ventilation units on it, which heat fine in the winter, but in the summer, all they do is suck the hot air out and then blow it back down on the workers," said John Simino, a Car Equipment Chairman for Transport Workers' Union Local 100.

According to Mr. Simino, transit workers have been sweltering in the East New York Shop for nearly a decade, waiting for NYC Transit to finish installing the compressor components for eight heating and ventilation units sitting on the roof above the workshop. The wall fans were a concession to the high temperatures, and an acknowledgment from NYC Transit supervisors that conditions at times get dangerously hot.

Earlier Start Times

NYC supervisors have also allowed workers to alter their scheduled shift times to avoid working during the most intense heat. Many workers choose to clock in at 6 a.m. so they can get out by 2 p.m., instead of having to stay until mid-afternoon. Afternoon employees can clock in an hour later than usual to add more evening hours to their shifts.

"We appreciate that they are willing to give us accommodations, but according to [Occupational Safety and Health Administration] rules, they are also supposed to be using engineering controls to rectify the situation," said Mr. Simino. "We need to see some work orders for the compressors on the roof, or some larger, floor-to-ceiling fans installed like the ones put in the Jerome Avenue shop. Otherwise, this accommodating will go on and on."

NYC Transit didn't respond to calls for comment.

Break for Supervisors

The roof of the East New York repair shop was refitted about eight years ago, and a slight extension added. It was then, said Mr. Simino, that NYC Transit installed the heating and ventilation units that provide heat in the winter and recycle air in the summer. But only the units that sit above the cafeteria and locker rooms and feed into the supervisors' offices have been equipped with the compressors that will cool air as it's pumped inside.

Jerry Archer, a Local 100 shop steward at the East New York location, said nobody had suffered any serious heat-related health effects in recent years. But members often have to step inside an air-conditioned car to take a break, he noted, and many complain of breathing difficulties and headaches due to the stuffy air. In summer, the shop temperatures are on average 10 degrees higher than those outside.

The union suspected the steamy conditions put an extra strain on the workers' bodies, Mr. Simino stated.

"They're required to wear steel-toed boots, thick gloves, helmets and long pants. If they're doing a particularly greasy job, they tie a paper suit over their clothes," he said. "We also have to deal with the hot air blowing out from the a-c units in subway cars as we fix them." Installing larger fans or the roof compressors would be easy tasks, Mr. Simino contended. He noted that they could have been done by any of the 170 Structure Maintainers that NYC Transit, citing a lack of repair work in the subways, transferred into cleaning positions last year.