Some Grumbling in Ranks
TWU, 'Transit' Combine On Track-Safety Course

By ARI PAUL

Thousands of New York City Transit workers are going through day-long safety stand-downs, many of them led personally by the agency and Transport Workers Union Local 100 presidents, in an effort to increase work safety on the subway tracks.

Local 100 Photo WORKING TOGETHER: Both Transport Workers Union Local 100 and New York City Transit have heralded the stand-downs as a successful collaborative effort that will change the authority's 'organizational culture.' Track Inspector Thomas Bodai instructs workers on the rule changes.

In May and June, all 7,000 of Local 100's Maintenance of Way members as well as supervisors and workers in the Rapid Transit Operators and Car Equipment have and will attend joint presentations by NYC Transit President Howard H. Roberts and Local 100 leader Roger Toussaint, and work in smaller groups to learn new track-safety rule changes.

2 Deaths Were Catalysts

They were sparked by two work accidents in April 2007 that killed Track Workers Marvin Franklin and Daniel Boggs. Since the accidents, noise-making generators have been discouraged around work sites and work around non-functioning alarm boxes has been eliminated. The stand-downs revolve mainly around changes in flagging designed to protect workers from trains traveling through their sites.

"Before making a reverse train move, the tower operator must advise all personnel on the tracks of the impending move and receive confirmation that the employees are off the right of way before the move can be initiated," Mr. Roberts said of the rule changes. "Feedback from employees is encouraging because their message to me is that they are beginning to believe in the sincerity of this effort."

Many workers were receptive to the new rules.

The Chief-Leader/Adrienne Haywood-James 'LIKE A BOSS': New York City Transit worker Kevin Meyers said that while he thought the rule changes in the recent safety stand-downs were for the better, he along with other workers believed that Transport Workers Union Local 100 President Roger Toussaint was acting more like a manager than a union leader during the sessions.

"The rule changes, it's going to help a lot," said Transit Electrical Helper Kevin Meyers, who already attended a stand-down.

Power Distribution Maintainer Chris Gardner especially liked the requirement that there be adjacent track-flagging if the tracks are not separated by a physical barrier.

"That's great," he said. "Basically, all the tracks where you are working are going to have flags."

Still Prone to Short-Cuts

But Joseph Betancourt, a PDM based at the 14th St. station on the west-side IRT, said that the rule changes were not addressing the most-pressing issue, which was that supervisors were forcing Local 100 members to skirt safety rules to increase production.

"They're making a lot of improvements to flagging, but in my opinion, there weren't a lot of problems to begin with," he said of the stand-downs.

Mr. Betancourt argued that in the accidents causing the deaths of Track Workers Franklin and Boggs, the problem was not that the existing flagging rules were inadequate, but that the rules were not being properly enforced.

"On the tracks they just want to get the job done," he said of the supervisors.

Local 100 Track Division Chairman Carlos Albert said that some of the rule changes were actually detrimental for his members. Until now, he explained, workers on the tracks would not walk into areas with no clearance. Now, they would do work there if they had a portable tripper. Mr. Albert, a Track Inspector based in Brooklyn, added that workers were still waiting for other rule changes to be implemented.

'Recommendations Not Helping'

"We still don't even have radios," he said, noting that both Local 100 and NYC Transit have stressed that the changes would enhance communication between workers on the tracks and the train towers. "The recommendations aren't helping us out."

ROGER TOUSSAINT: Added focus on track safety.

While Local 100 and NYC Transit have heralded the joint labor/management effort to address track safety issues to do away with an outmoded "organizational culture," some Local 100 members accused Mr. Toussaint of acting more like a manager than a union leader.

"The whole morning he was pointing out people who were sleeping while there were managers there," Mr. Albert said. "His actions are like that of [an NYC Transit] boss."

Mr. Gardner said that Mr. Toussaint avoided difficult questions members raised during the stand-down he attended.

"On a few occasions, if he didn't want to answer it, he would shield himself from it," he said. "He would roll his eyes."

'They Passed the Buck'

Other workers noted that during the question-and-answer period with the two presidents, Mr. Roberts and Mr. Toussaint told workers to write down their questions on comment sheets or to direct their questions to the instructors in their smaller groups when the questioning ran long.

"There was a lot of passing the buck," said Mr. Betancourt.

Some of the workers were upset that Mr. Toussaint, a former Track Worker and union Track Division chairman, insinuated that the deaths of the two Track Workers last year were partly their own fault, and that workers were endangering themselves by working too quickly rather than holding management responsible for work-site safety.

"Instead he just says that our guys took shortcuts, which is just a slap in the face," Mr. Albert said. "They're disgusted. They consider him a traitor."

Mr. Toussaint's spokesman did not respond to the complaints.

'Reforming the Culture'

Mr. Roberts said that the cooperative nature of the stand-downs is a step forward in reforming the "organizational culture" of agency, a vow the union and transit presidents made one year ago. The union, he noted, has jointly participated in the Board of Inquiry reports on the two worker deaths and in pre-work inspections.

"The safety stand-downs have introduced a new collaborative labor-management approach to problem-solving that we intend to continue as we create full-time labor-management teams to research issues throughout the system and implement new programs," he said. "While these efforts are not limited to safety issues, they will most certainly focus on safety as it remains our top priority."