Gives MTA Discretion
Track Safety Bill Goes to Governor

By ARI PAUL

A bill establishing a task force to develop track safety standards for NYC Transit workers passed the State Assembly June 20 and now awaits the Governor's signature.

GOVERNOR SPITZER: It's up to him, now.

The task force would consist of the Commissioner of the state Department of Transportation, the President of NYC Transit and the president of Transport Workers Union Local 100, or their designees. The bill amends the state's transportation law to have the task force address training, instructions for Train Operators, third-rail precautions and other safety issues concerning workers. The bill requires that the task force meet at least four times per year.

MTA: Good Collaboration

Officials from Local 100 and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority worked together drafting the language of the bill.

"It was an excellent collaborative process between the MTA and the transit workers union to address the issue we're both concerned about, which is the safety of our employees," said Jeremy Soffin, a spokesman for the MTA.

SERPHIN R. MALTESE: Sponsored compromise.

"This new legislation is a vital step in the right direction towards enhanced track safety," said Local 100 President Roger Toussaint in a statement. "This bill makes government action for track safety proactive, not reactive. Previous track safety bills waited for something disastrous to happen to trigger action. Now, there is an official, mandated process with aggressive steps to make the tracks safer on an ongoing basis."

The task force would have to submit at least one report making recommendations for a track safety program to the Governor, the Majority Leader of the Senate and the Speaker of the Assembly by May 1, 2008.

NYC Transit would still have the ability to modify the recommendations and implement safety changes at its discretion. The task force would also be responsible for conducting annual inspections for compliance to standards and programs it recommends.

Union Split on Bill

A bill that intended to establish safety regulations for track work passed the State Assembly but stalled in the State Senate earlier this month. First introduced during the Pataki administration, Local 100 lobbied for that bill after two Track Workers were killed on the job last April, but the MTA vocally opposed it. The MTA believed the task force bill was superior because it would give management and the union the flexibility to address workers' concerns as they come up, whereas the previous bill prescribed specific regulations, Mr. Soffin said.

But Shannon Poland, a Track Worker and shop steward based at Manhattan's Columbus Circle station where his fellow member Daniel Boggs was struck and killed by a downtown-bound 3 train in April, didn't feel any safer when he heard the news about the bill. Calling it "unacceptable," he said the original track safety bill was comprehensive and that the bill creating the task force didn't do enough.

'Don't Need a Study'

"We don't need a committee," said Thomas Creegan, chairman of the union's Power Division, a part of the Maintenance of Way Division. "We know what needs to be changed. We want flagging protection. We need stronger lights in the holes."

He also thought it was wrong for Mr. Toussaint to work with the MTA on a bill that set up a safety task force rather than fight for specific regulations, especially when hundreds of members went to Albany in May to advocate for the original track safety bill.

"He is absolutely in bed with management," Mr. Creegan said. "Roger Toussaint is the T in MTA."

A spokesman for Mr. Toussaint called Mr. Creegan's criticism political posturing and said that most members want permanent oversight of track safety.

The task force bill was first introduced in the State Senate in late April, sponsored by Sen. Serphin R. Maltese. The bill passed the State Assembly in the late evening of June 20, one day before the legislative session came to a close.

Expect Spitzer to Sign

Jennifer Givner, a spokeswoman for Governor Spitzer, said that the Governor valued track safety and would carefully review the legislation. Both union and MTA officials were confident that the bill would become law. Mr. Toussaint, a former Track Worker, considered it a legislative victory. But Mr. Poland, who has encountered two near misses while on the job and still works in what's known as "the hole," thought otherwise.

"It makes you think the deaths of Brother Boggs, Brother Franklin and the injury to Brother Hill were in vain," he said, referring to the two work accidents in April. "Toussaint knows the dangers. Or maybe he forgot where he came from."