Conductor Battles Illness, 'Transit' Bid to Fire Him; Claims He's Owed $12G
By ARI PAUL
The trouble for James Mitchell, a New York City Transit Conductor on the J line, started with an on-the-job trip to the bathroom in 1999.

The Chief-Leader/Adrienne Haywood-James 'A PAGE OUT OF KAFKA': Conductor James Mitchell, right, claims that New York City Transit has lobbed false disciplinary charges at him since 1999 in an attempt to fire him due to his irritable bowel syndrome. With him is attorney John McHugh, who represented him at a disciplinary hearing at NYC Transit headquarters last week.

After being overcome with the sudden need to use the bathroom, Mr. Mitchell held his train for several minutes and went to a crew quarters in a subway station. He said by the end of that week he was fighting to protect his job.

Illness Draws No Sympathy

Since then, he has been diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome, and over the past nine years, Mr. Mitchell said, he has had to stop the train about 10 times to relieve himself. In that time he has undergone surgery and taken time off for his illness, but he claimed NYC Transit has refused to pay him $12,000 in sick and disability pay, which has led to a personal financial crisis, and said that the authority is trying to terminate him.

Mr. Mitchell unsuccessfully sued NYC Transit, and has since been fighting charges of taking unexcused absences in arbitration hearings.

"Mr. Mitchell has a documented medical condition, which causes him to have to take time out occasionally," said his attorney, John McHugh. "And for some reason or other the [Metropolitan Transportation Authority] has painted a target on his back; they want to get rid of him. They do things like he submits doctor's lines and they say they're incomplete and you look at the document lines and you check every line is filled in and all the information that's required is there. And they reject it."

Mr. McHugh added that Mr. Mitchell had the right to 12-months' time off due to his illness under the Family Medical Leave Act.

For the last 2-1/2 months Mr. Mitchell been assigned to platform duties throughout the system, away from his normal route along the J line.

Transferred As 'Punishment'

"They send me wherever they want to send me," Mr. Mitchell said. "It's punishment."

Mr. McHugh referred to the disciplinary procedure for the last several years, which Mr. Mitchell has documented in audio recordings, as "absurd."

In 1999, he said, a supervisor brought Mr. Mitchell up on charges of having his seat down in the Conductor's area of the train, which was not a rule violation, and for having his radio off, a claim which an audio recording proved to be false. The charges were dropped, Mr. McHugh explained, but an arbitrator found that Mr. Mitchell had committed insubordination for questioning his supervisor's accusations, and put him on two months of unpaid suspension.

"Two completely fallacious charges are filed against him," Mr. McHugh said. "They sustain insubordination because he had the temerity to tell the supervisor that he was lying about the radio being off and there was no rule about the seat being down. So to defend yourself against charges that are completely false is itself a charge which you can't win."

On the morning of Aug. 20, Mr. Mitchell entered NYC Transit headquarters in lower Manhattan for another hearing. Mr. McHugh served as his counsel, since Transport Workers Union Local 100 officials would not represent him, he said, because he was not a member in good standing.

Mr. Mitchell said that for 21 of his 22 years with NYC Transit he has paid his union dues, but has fallen behind, he claimed, because the authority still owed him at least $12,000.

"You can imagine what has happened to my credit," he said. "My bills have backed up, but the union's position is 'we don't care about your bills or your financial problems; you have to pay us $600.'''

NYC Transit officials did not comment on Mr. Mitchell's case.

Local 100 spokesmen did not respond to requests for comment. A shop steward confirmed that the union did not represent members in hearings if they were late in their dues.

Mr. McHugh said there were other transit workers going through similar disciplinary procedures, and that such a system was producing a disgruntled and bitter workforce.

"It's a page out of Kafka," he said, invoking the late European-Jewish novelist who wrote of surreal and oppressive bureaucracies. "This is a sign of what is called God-awful management."