Why Workers Resist 'Progress'
New Technology vs. Respect

By BRANDON L. WARD

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority encourages its bus and subway riders to ''if you see something, say something." In some circles saying something, especially to the police, will result in you being labeled an informant or a snitch. However, six years after 9/11 there is no getting around the fact that times are a-changin'. Indeed, it is not overreaching to say that many Americans still live their lives with a latent undercurrent of fear of what may happen next. For instance, America's top counter-terrorism officials are warning that the United States will face a persistent threat from Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups for years to come.

Brandon L. Ward is president of the New York City Municipal Chapter of Blacks in Government, an employee advocacy group. He is a Mechanical Engineer with the Department of Transportation. He can be reached at brandonward@nycbig.com.

Against this backdrop, the use of "smart" technology is becoming more commonplace in the workplace. Take, for example, the Bloomberg administration's push to install global positioning systems (GPS) in yellow cabs. Despite protests, manifested by two strikes, from some cab drivers, the administration is steadfastly committed to PlaNYC - a greener and smarter city, according to the city improvers.

A Matter of Respect

It is my contention that the Mayor and his city improvers (i.e. policy makers) are tone-deaf to the instinctive response of the cab drivers' protest against the use of some smart technology. Curiously, in his Oct. 23 article, "Something Money Can't Buy," New York Times columnist Clyde Haberman hit the nail on the head when he wrote: "Like all labor disputes, the one-day strike by taxi drivers yesterday turned on tangible matters, in this case credit card machines, global positioning systems and the like. But it was also about an intangible, something that cabbies often feel they are denied. It is called respect. It is called dignity."

Sounds familiar? It was the rallying cry of transit workers during their 60-hour strike in December 2005. And how about the fact that "dignity" was the core issue that incited Claude Fort - president of the Civil Service Technical Guild, Local 375 - and other union leaders' passion to protest the administration's implementation of palm-scanners to record engineers' work time at DDC. As Mr. Fort put it, the use of biometrics - the unique identifying qualities associated with faces, fingers, hands and other body parts - ''is very offensive; it is degrading; it is demeaning."

As a city employee, I see the hubris of agency improvers who fail to weigh the respect and dignity factors of workers in their implementation of new and smart policy. According to John McDonagh, a cab driver, "they never go to the drivers to ask what we want." Not for nothing, such indifference, in my view, makes a compelling case for racial diversity and cultural competency in the policy-making staff of agencies. For instance, as a black male, it is hard to ignore the nightmarish statistics recently released to the City Council pertaining to the NYPD's "Stop and Frisks" practices. According to the report, blacks were 55 percent of the 508,540 individuals stopped by the NYPD; 33 percent were Hispanics. Interestingly enough, Police Commissioner Kelly's rationalization is, "officers are stopping those they reasonably suspect of committing a crime based on description and circumstances, and not on personal bias."

Ideals With Potholes

Understandably, all law-enforcement seeks to prevent crime. However, when racial profiling and technology (i.e. Global Positioning System (GPS) and biometric technology) are combined as the means of tracking what a taxi driver or city engineer, respectively, is doing on the clock (or meter) I can't help but see potholes in a road paved with good intentions. For one, unfortunately, I get the sense that as far as our politicians are concerned, privacy is a luxury that we can do without in the name of security. In a recent New York Times op-ed, "Bush is Not Above the Law," James Bamford pointed out that the National Security Agency had been monitoring the phone calls and e-mail messages of Americans for more than four years without first obtaining warrants from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, as required by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

And two, it is hard not to imagine the tales of abuse of power. After all, it isn't far considering a Fredrick K. Smith (Mr. Smith, a senior manager with the MTA, allegedly requested photos of employees because he claimed he was having problems putting together the faces and names of his largely foreign-born staff) tracking what employees are doing on the taxpayers' clock. Certainly I can imagine the folks sitting in the Mayor's bullpen who nod off being told, all you'll get from sleeping is a dream.

Power Corrupts

The fact is, no matter how noble the motivations of political leaders are, one cannot dismiss the fact that when they achieve positions of power, the power itself inevitably becomes their driving force. Surprise, surprise; but government officials often yield to the temptations and corrupting influences of power. After all, the concept of "Big Brother" was born in "1984," George Orwell's version of a totalitarian society where people are kept in line with the warning, "Big Brother is watching you." Orwell also said that "Political language ... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." For instance, the Bush administration's justification for war on Iraq was precipitated by a search for WMD which, even though not found, resulted in our launching of "smart" bombs. Ironically, smart bombs also killed innocent people.

Having said that, it would be foolish, even petulant, for me to argue categorically against the use of "smart" technology. Unfortunately, for those of us for whom these issues matter, it seems that some in power, like Commissioner Kelly, hold the line of thinking that justifies racial profiling as a necessary inconvenience towards keeping our city the "safest" big city in the country and the homeland secure from terrorism.