At Odds With 'Transit'
TWU Presses Feds On Tunnel Lighting

By GINGER ADAMS OTIS

An official of Transport Workers' Union Local 100, dissatisfied with the tunnel lighting standards used by New York City Transit, is asking the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration to step in and issue a binding interpretation of its own illumination rules.

JOHN SAMUELSEN: 'Grossly insufficient.'

Local 100 Track Division Chairman John Samuelsen, who's active in the union's effort to improve subway tunnel illumination for the protection of maintenance workers, said Oct. 13 that NYC Transit and the state Department of Labor have ignored his requests for stronger lighting.

Longtime Advocate

Mr. Samuelsen advocated for the improved conditions as a union representative for transit workers, and later as an acting vice president after he was appointed to the position by Local 100 President Roger Toussaint.

Currently he's pursuing the issue in his capacity as an elected chairman. He is also running for secretary-treasurer against the Toussaint slate in upcoming union elections.

Local 100 succeeded in getting NYC Transit to clarify its procedures for lighting subway tunnels in 2004. Prior to that, Mr. Samuelsen said, no minimum requirements existed. Maintenance of Way workers - particularly Third Rail Maintainers - worked in constant fear of a misstep that might have fatal consequences.

Local 100 pushed NYC Transit to adopt OSHA's minimum lighting standard for work done in mine shafts and tunnels - 10-foot illumination candles that should be outfitted with powerful bulbs.

Opted for Minimum

NYC Transit instead adopted the minimum requirement for general construction work: five-foot illumination candles stationed 15 feet apart, staggered in banks of lights with 100-watt bulbs every 30 feet on either side of the track where work is being done.

Mr. Samuelsen, who appealed the decision first to NYC Transit and later to the DOL's Public Employee Safety and Health Program, said the current conditions, while improved, still leave workers struggling with poor visibility.

"Five-foot candles may be sufficient for a romantic dinner, but it's grossly insufficient for working under live train traffic and energized third rails in a pitch-black subway tunnel," he commented.

Francina Kitchen, a spokeswoman for the DOL, issued a brief statement when called for comment.

"For underground type transit work, OSHA/PESH standard requires a minimum of five-foot candles. The Transit Authority procedures also call for a minimum of five-foot candles," she said.

The DOL declined to talk about Mr. Samuelsen's assertion that it had misinterpreted the OSHA definitions and applied the wrong standard to transit workers.

Transit Agrees

Jim Wincek, Director of Hazard Assessment in NYC Transit's Office of Systems Safety, said the agency "was in complete agreement with the DOL."

The OSHA regulations as published by the U.S. Department of Labor declare five-foot candles the minimum illumination required for work in "tunnels, shafts, and general underground work areas." That's the rule that NYC Transit has adopted and PESH has upheld over union appeals.

But OSHA also includes an exception: "minimum of 10-foot candles is required at tunnel and shaft heading during drilling, mucking, and scaling."

It also states that general construction related to plants and shops, i.e. "mechanical and electrical equipment rooms, carpenter shops, rigging lofts and active store rooms, mess halls, and indoor toilets and workrooms" be lighted with at least 10- foot candles. Mr. Samuelsen has argued to NYC Transit and PESH that maintenance workers in the tunnels regularly perform drilling and also mucking - defined as moving or shifting materials to clear an area.

Mr. Samuelsen noted that OSHA hasn't promulgated any illumination rules that deal specifically with subway workers and their day-to-day tasks.

"The word 'general' doesn't include live train traffic or third rails," he said, referring to OSHA's five-foot candle minimum for general underground work. "So that would take general out of the description [of transit workers' jobs] right away."

There have been two worker deaths over the past decade that Local 100 attributed to lack of illumination.

Transit worker Samuel McPhaul was killed in July 2001 while flagging in an area that wasn't properly lighted. The union believes that he tripped and fell onto the live third rail, electrocuting himself. An NYC Transit investigation claimed that Mr. McPhaul, known to be taking an experimental drug for kidney problems, passed out from the medication and fell on the rail.

Thomas DeStefano, a Third Rail Maintainer, was killed in the late 1990s while working in conditions the union described as "poorly lit."