NEW YORK
Subway slip-ups kill two workers
By G. Dunkel
New York
Signal maintainer Joy Antony was crushed to death on the New
York City subway tracks Nov. 22. Less than 24 hours later,
Kurien Baby was killed by a subway train while he was setting
out warning lights.
Both workers were part of small teams that maintain and
inspect the signals that keep New York's subways running 24
hours a day, seven days a week. These teams don't have a
"flagger" to warn them about oncoming trains and warn the train
operators that people are working on the tracks.
TransportWorkers Local 100 President Roger Toussaint told
reporters: "Our members are sent out to essentially dodge
trains, dodge rails, and hope they come home at the end of the
day. What we want to come out of this is that we want no more
deaths."
The union organized buses to take its members to Antony's
funeral on Nov. 25.
Officials of the Metropolitan Transit Authority announced
Nov. 23 that for the next 24 hours only emergency track work
would be done. The MTA would review its safety procedures
during that period.
The union and the MTA are in bitter contract negotiations.
Safety, wages and management respect for the workers are the
main issues.
Safety costs money. Along with recklessly endangering
workers to save this money, the MTA is proposing to seriously
slash bus and subway service. That's one choice, they say.
A second option being floated is to slash service a little
less severely, mainly on the weekends, and to raise the fare
from $1.50 to $1.75 for a single ride.
A third possibility, according to the MTA management, is to
keep service as it is now and raise the fare to $2 a ride.
For weekly and monthly tickets, the MTA's proposal would
increase the costs by approximately the same percentage. These
tickets offer a better rate to steady commuters than the
single-ride rates.
The poorest people in New York, who have no alternative to
public transportation, cannot afford the current commuter
tickets. They won't be able to afford the higher prices the MTA
is proposing.
Local 100 has been an active participant in the "Save the
Fare Campaign." The union has taken out ads and participated in
the rallies on the issue.
The MTA bosses claim they are concerned about safety. On
website and posters, they exhort passengers not to run down
steps or lean against doors or hold doors open. But if the MTA
fails to ensure the safety of its workers, how can it ensure
the safety of its passengers?
Reprinted from the Dec. 5, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyrighted
under a Creative
Commons License.
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