Follow-Up on Contract
Heart Defibrillators At 8 Transit Shops

By ARI PAUL

NYC Transit and Transport Workers Union Local 100 have agreed on the supplying of automated external defibrillators to eight work locations employing more than 1,000 union members.

FRANK GOLDSMITH: Devices will save lives.

Local 100 has been concerned that members could suffer heart attacks on the job and demanded the installation of defibrillators at high-density work shops during contract negotiations in 2005. The contract including that provision was imposed by an arbitrator in December 2006. Management and union representatives met on May 24 to discuss the implementation of the program.

'Highly Stressful Work'

"It's hard and highly stressful work," said Frank Goldsmith, the union's director of occupational safety.

At the meeting, NYC Transit suggested seven high-density locations, including the Coney Island Overhaul shop and Michael J. Quill Depot on West 41st St. and 10th Ave. in Manhattan. Local 100 proposed the addition of the 207th St. train facility and management agreed.

The devices' distributor will determine how many defibrillators each shop needs based on how many workers report there on a 24-hour cycle. The Quill depot will have 13 devices, said Mr. Goldsmith. NYC Transit estimated that it will install more than 70 defibrillators at the eight facilities.

AMIN KHAN: NYC Transit 'very cooperative.'

When each shop gets the devices, a joint labor-management team will solicit volunteers to be trained in how to use the defibrillators and in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

Long List to Implement

"Once that's done, then they'll be operational," Mr. Goldsmith said.

Nearly 20 percent of deaths in the United States are caused by heart attacks, according to the American Heart Association.

"This is a critical life-saving device that we want made available to passengers as well," said union president Roger Toussaint.

It took nearly six months for management and the union to implement the plan. Amin Khan, the union's director of contract compliance, said that there were nearly 150 new benefit items in the contract, and due to the union's limited resources it took this long to address the defibrillator program.

"It's a matter of bureaucracy," he said. "It wasn't for any nefarious reasons on the part of management. They have been very cooperative."

There are currently two defibrillators at NYC Transit headquarters at 2 Broadway. The other locations will be the Jamaica Maintenance shop, Fresh Pond Depot and Queens Village Depot in Queens, the West Farms Depot in The Bronx, the Yukon Depot in Staten Island, and the Stillwell Terminal in Brooklyn. More than 100 workers report to each of the eight locations. Two of these shops are represented by Amalgamated Transit Union locals, a Local 100 memo said.

The union eventually wants all shops employing more than 50 workers in a 24-hour cycle to have the devices.

"Management did the right thing by agreeing to do what they already have for management," Mr. Goldsmith said. "Now they're expanding this extremely important medical service to more locations and hopefully throughout the whole system, within a short period of time."