Union, 'Transit' in Accord
Safety Changes In Subways Approved

By ARI PAUL

New York City Transit and Transport Workers Union Local 100 have agreed on several safety initiatives in light of two recent Track Worker deaths, including having supervisors escort maintenance workers along subway tracks.

ROGER TOUSSAINT: Sees change in attitude.

Cheryl Kennedy, NYC Transit's Vice-President of System Safety, outlined various safety measures to Transit President Howard Roberts in an internal memo.

"The use of generators at work sites should be discouraged," Ms. Kennedy wrote. "Noise suppression devices should be routinely attached to equipment which interferes with the noise of approaching trains."

Prior Safety Inspections

Ms. Kennedy also stated: "A joint management/union safety inspection will be performed prior to the commencement of all major track construction projects."

The measures are temporary until a track safety task force consisting of management and union representatives finalizes an investigation. The task force is expected to report its findings by mid-summer.

JOHN SAMUELSEN: Keep the pressure on.

Track Worker Marvin Franklin was killed on April 29 after he was hit by a Queens-bound G train at Brooklyn's Hoyt-Schermerhorn St. station. Five days prior, Daniel Boggs was hit and killed by a downtown-bound 3 train while on the job at Manhattan's Columbus Circle station. Managers reviewed safety procedures during a four-day safety stand-down that ended May 4.

Roger Toussaint, president of Local 100, wrote in a letter to all of the union's members last week that the union was making progress with management in identifying and fixing safety problems. "One hopeful sign is the inclusion of cultural factors as an area to review," Mr. Toussaint wrote to members last week. "TA management culture has for far too long tolerated if not encouraged risk-taking. This has been a culture of management being untouchable. Getting the job done no matter what gets rewarded, while making sure everything and everybody is safe does not."

Foe: No Big Deal

Mr. Toussaint called attention to the interim safety measures in the letter, but Track Inspector and opposition leader John Samuelsen was unimpressed.

"Most of it is a clarification of what management should have been doing anyway," he said.

He also said there needs to be more government regulation of subways. A bill that would have the state establish safety standards and regulations for city transit workers passed the State Assembly on May 14 and was delivered to the Senate. The MTA opposes the measure, saying Transit should remain self-regulated. Mr. Samuelsen called on Mr. Toussaint to pressure Governor Spitzer to persuade the MTA to withdraw its opposition. The union lobbied for the bill in Albany.

Mr. Samuelsen also suggested that flaggers - who direct the traffic flow on work sites - should have "portable trippers" that would stop a train if it failed to stop on its own when track maintenance is under way.