A group of Big Apple’s most prominent labor leaders are getting behind a major transit union’s call for more police on the metro – saying the system no longer feels safe and allows the city to protect its “heroes” Urges
In a letter to Mayor de Blasio released on Sunday, there are representatives for the hundreds of thousands of workers who depend on public transportation, who have been driving the city through the epidemic – including grocery store workers, retail Employees, city employees and, of course, transit workers – called for an increased police presence in the transit system “at least in the short term.”
“The reality is, many of our members are not yet experienced working in safe riding or mass transit. This is unacceptable,” officials wrote.
“No one should be afraid to use these basic transit services, especially the heroic women and men in our ranks who have sacrificed so much to keep the city one of its darkest hours. They are riding day in and day out, and they deserve better, ”it continued.
“You have called our members heroes; Now is the time to put your words into action and get their backs underground. “
The letter was signed by Mario Silento of the New York AFL-CIO, Vincent Alvarez of NYC Central Labor Council, Henry Garrido, President of District Council 37, Union President of Retail, Wholesale and Department Stores, Stuart Appelbaum and others.
Subway crime rates have declined in March compared to the previous month, according to newly released NYPD figures – but they are far higher than pre-pandemic.
There have also been a number of recent high-profile metro attacks – with a portion of the Stranchers being dumped into the tracks – which are even more noticeable with riders amid the epidemic.
“A few weeks, crime numbers are increasing and are at an unbearable level; Other weeks, the data looks better, ”the letter reads. “But one thing is the same – the system just doesn’t feel as safe as it used to, or is as safe as it could be.”
Union leaders said that police should “be stationed at places where attacks, robberies and other incidents take place.”
“Deploying police at the turnstile does not help anyone,” he wrote. “We need additional police who are actually appearing to help the riders with the crime.”
TWU Local 100 – the largest transit union in the city – has been emphasizing the presence of more and more police in the system for years, citing a spike in attacks on transit workers.
Subway conductor Terence Towler told The Post on Sunday that he has been out of work since 7 February. Lexington Ave. — dealing with shock after the attack on the 59th Street station.
An erratic rider who stopped the train tried to climb the head of the towel from the window of the conductor’s cab – and the six-year-old MTA elder was hurt in the eye.
The police were MIA at the time of the attack and never caught a disturbance, Towler said. He expressed disappointment that his alleged attacker was only wanted for harassment.
“I want to get back to work,” he said. “Now I am a train conductor. I want to be a train operator and maybe more than that. I want to go too far in transit. But I want the police department and my employer to take my life seriously. “
Subway conductors like Towler are not the only MTA worker victims. In December, Kumar Narinder, a 70-year-old station agent, was hurt and bleeding after being dragged onto the tracks in Brooklyn.
“I was an inch away from the third rail,” Narinder said.
Bus activists have also reported an increase in attacks. On New Year’s Day, bus driver Charlene Alston was attacked by a man, who broke her window and started hitting her in the head.
“If it happened to a police officer, it would be a quick decision: ‘Oh, we can’t have that,” Towler commented. “But it happens for us.”
The new union pressure on de Blasio comes as it relieves the MTA leadership’s pressure for more policing on the transit system, which it claimed is “discouraging” people from returning to subways and buses.
NYPD Transit Chief Kathleen O’Reilly echoed Hizoner’s position in comments to the MTA Board last week.
“Whether Rider will hinder confidence continues to be feared,” O’Riley said.
“It’s a disservice to the people of New York to pursue the narrative in crime. It’s growing in the subway, when that’s not the case.”
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