Add State Labor Head to Subway Safety Panel

By ARI PAUL

During his first day as the state's top executive, Governor Paterson March 17 enacted a bill that would add the state Labor Commissioner to a task force overseeing track safety at New York City Transit.

SUSAN JOHN: A logical choice.

Former Governor Spitzer signed a bill creating the task force last summer to address the safety issues for Maintenance of Way (MoW) employees after two Track Workers died in the line of duty last April. The task force, which will formally meet for the first time later this year, includes the state Transportation Commissioner, the president of Transport Workers Union Local 100, and the President of NYC Transit.

Saw Obvious Role

State Sen. Serphin Maltese and Assemblywoman Susan John, who sponsored the bill, said they wanted the Labor Commissioner on the task force because the DOL ultimately oversees issues regarding the welfare of the state's employees.

"It's a pretty simple additional amendment," Ms. John said.

Local 100 President Roger Toussaint, a former Track Worker, has hailed the task force as a way for the union to help preemptively address problems that imperil MoW workers.

Spokesmen for Mr. Toussaint did not respond to requests for comment about the addition of the Labor Commissioner. An NYC Transit spokesman declined to comment on the bill.

Thomas Creegan, a Local 100 rep for Power Distribution Maintainers, has been a strong critic of the task force and a supporter of a bill the union had pushed for years that would have created safety regulations for NYC Transit.

"It's a smokescreen," he said of the Labor Commissioner's addition to the task force. "You've got two fatalities and nothing's been done."

Mr. Creegan and other Local 100 officers within its MoW Division said the original track safety bill would have established concrete measures protecting workers, but it failed to find a sponsor in the Senate last summer.