Letters to the Editor
TWU Politics Hampers Safety

To the Editor:

I knew and worked with Track Workers Danny Boggs and Marvin Franklin. Their premature, utterly unnecessary deaths anger me more than words can express.

From September 1991 through December 2000, I served as an elected vice-chair of Local 100's Track Division Safety Committee, most of that time with sole responsibility for the night tour. In all that decade, on my tour, when more than half the track work gets done, there was not one on-track death of a Track Worker.

What's different today?

In the 2002 New York City Transit/Transport Workers' Union contract, the union won unprecedented safety provisions that drew applause from union safety advocates across the country. We won the right to refuse unsafe work without penalty, and, in addition, a system of daily accident reporting by the employer to the union, so that unsafe conditions could be identified and fixed immediately.

So why, despite stronger contractual safety protection than ever, do we now have more deaths and near-misses on the tracks, in a shorter period of time than anyone now working can recall ever happening before?

Except in its last days, immediately before its demise, the Willie James administration that preceded Roger Toussaint never dared play politics with safety, never dared withhold its support from union officers' efforts to protect members on the tracks. On safety questions, the union faced management in unity.

Current Local 100 President Toussaint, in a manner that rivals that of the Bush White House, has politicized every function of the union, including safety enforcement. Elected officers not friendly to him are duplicated or replaced by his appointees. Many of these appointees I consider friends and good people. Nevertheless, their function, even if this is not what they themselves intend, is to undermine the standing of the elected officers both with the membership and in dealings with management. The picture presented could not be clearer: Mr. Toussaint chooses to try to dominate by force, rather than do the harder work of finding common ground with his opponents and building true unity within the ranks of the union. The union faces management in a state of conflict and obvious disunity.

In this crisis, with two brothers in their graves, you would expect the games to stop and all resources of the union to be mobilized on the issue of track safety. Amidst all the feel-good talk about management sorrow over the obvious violations of basic safety procedures that caused these deaths, you would expect Mr. Toussaint to demand that the MTA withdraw its opposition to the track safety legislation pending in Albany. But his silence on this issue is deafening.

It's wonderful that the current head of NYC Transit seems to have a conscience. But transit bosses always grow a conscience after a fatality that their negligence has caused. These fits of conscience usually last about six months, then it's back to business as usual. If NYC Transit President Howard Roberts's conscience lasts a little longer, well and good, but bosses come and go, along with their consciences. Mr. Roberts's current good will is insufficient to serve as the foundation of the union's effort to build a safer workplace.

In 1997, the Federal Railroad Administration, after a years-long process of consultation with representatives from major railroads and rail unions, including TWU, enacted a set of safety standards to protect people working on railroad tracks. Through a quirk of the law, the NYC subway system is not covered by these standards.

In 2001, Mr. Toussaint asked this writer to draw up a version of the Federal regulations adapted to the NYC subway system. This initial draft was then turned over to John Samuelsen, then chair of the union's Track Division Committee, and Pat Lynch, current vice-president of Maintenance of Way. Initially, through numerous meetings with the state's Department of Labor, we tried get the state to voluntarily adopt these regulations. When Pataki blocked this effort, the union sought legislation. Our bill passed the Assembly in 2005, but stalled in the Senate due to NYC Transit opposition. Right now, it's again in committee in the Assembly. MTA opposition would likely block it again.

A number of everyday unsafe practices in the subway system would be made illegal by this law. It is opposed by the MTA because of its cost in increased manpower and training. Before the current fit of conscience passes, let's get a commitment from the MTA to support the bill. But before we do this, let's reverse the watering-down that took place in the hope of getting a bill that had a better chance of being enacted. The Federal regulations provide for substantial penalties, as much as $10,000, against individual supervisors who put people on the track without the required protection. The penalty section was removed from the union's proposed bill, thus pulling its teeth. Let's put the teeth back in it. In fact let's take the next step, and ask for criminal prosecution for violations that result in serious injury or death. That should make supervisors think twice before they tell Track Workers, "Just get it done."

And everyone must be on board for this effort, so as to face management and the Legislature in a truly unified condition. Having done the arduous work of drafting this law and representing the union in the numerous discussions that have already occurred with state agencies, legislators and NYC Transit management safety people, John Samuelsen and Pat Lynch are without question the most knowledgeable people in the union today on the issue of track safety. But they have been excluded from the current investigations and discussions, as has the entire elected Track Safety Committee.

Brother Toussaint, it will be difficult - perhaps impossible - for you to overcome your constitutional incapacity for dealing with those who do not 100 percent agree with you or 100 percent support you. It will require a fundamental change in your character; perhaps impossible at this stage in your life. But you must do so if you are to mobilize the full resources of the union. Anything less, and the blood of the next Track Workers to fall will, in part be on your hands, as is, in part, the blood of Danny Boggs and Marvin Franklin.

JOEL FREDERICSON

Editor's note: Mr. Fredericson is a former Track Equipment Maintainer who retired in 2005.