This article first appeared in the July 2003 issue of the NYCOSH Safety Rep, a quarterly publication distributed to the membership of NYCOSH. For information about joining NYCOSH, click here.

By Dave Newman
NYCOSH Industrial Hygienist

Transport Workers Union Local 100 scored an impressive initial victory on June 2, 2003, when the Hazard Abatement Board of the New York State Department of Labor, at the urging of public sector unions, held a public hearing to assess the need for a standard for subway track work safety.

A standard is needed because New York City Transit, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority division with the largest passenger load and arguably the most hazardous conditions, is exempt from federal supervision, even though the Federal Railroad Administration has strict safety regulations that apply to two other MTA divisions, the Long Island Railroad and Metro North.

Like a mine, but worse

The New York City subway system, the largest in the world, is the only system that operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Because the system never shuts down, maintenance crews must dodge speeding trains and avoid live 600-volt third rails while working in cramped spaces with inadequate lighting. Under these hazardous conditions, 22 workers have been killed in the last 23 years, including five in the last two years. All were electrocuted or struck by moving trains.

Roger Toussaint, President of TWU Local 100 and a former track worker, testified that conditions are "comparable to conditions in a mine, save for two added factors: a third rail carrying 7 million watts of electricity and trains weighing 40 tons per car hurtling past in the darkness." John Samuelson of TWU testified that "New York City Transit is incapable of self-regulation. The flagging rules used by NYCT are primarily designed to facilitate train movement, not to protect workers." Mike Locher, a NYCT engineer and delegate in Local 375 of District Council 37, AFSCME, pointed out that NYCT refuses "to provide engineers with radios to communicate with the train operator command center and the flaggers; instead we are given cellular phones that do not work on the tracks." Gregory Smelyansky, a road car inspector for NYCT and TWU member, documented how workers are "retaliated against for insisting that safer work practices be used and more protections be put in place."

Denis Hughes, President of the New York State AFL-CIO, testified, "We are often hailed for having the greatest subway system in the world. But I submit to you that you cannot have a world class system without world class protections for your workers. How many more men and women must die?" Davitt McAteer, former Assistant Secretary for Mine Safety and Health, U.S. Department of Labor, noted in written testimony that "the absence of illumination in mines was considered one of the most significant contributors to the tragically high number of deaths and injuries in the American coal industry." He further noted that "it is clear that lack of adequate illumination contributed to many [subway] accidents and to their severity." NYCOSH testified that "public sector track work is a high hazard occupation for which no applicable federal standards exist "and that "employers and unions look to regulatory requirements to provide a floor for health and safety standards, much as minimum wage laws provide a floor for wage issues."

A lone dissenter

The sole testimony in opposition to a standard was supplied by Cheryl Kennedy, NYCT Vice President for System Safety, who stated that NYCT policies offer adequate worker protection and that imposition of a standard would reduce NYCT's ability to update safety policies in response to changes in technology.

New York State law requires the state Department of Labor to promulgate regulations if recommended to do so by the Hazard Abatement Board. Additional public hearings will be held in August.