Transport Workers Union International President John Samuelsen issued the following statement on the Federal Transit Administration’s Final Directive on Assaults to transit agencies across the country. The Final General Directive will publish in the federal register on Wednesday and is available on the public inspection docket today. Transit agencies must conduct a safety risk assessment, identify safety risk mitigations and submit required safety information to the FTA within 90 days of the General Directive’s publication.
“Transit workers have been subject to a plague of violence and abuse for far too long,” Samuelsen said. “This Final Directive is a historic step forward in terms of making it safer for the blue-collar men and women who move America. Transit workers have the right to go to work, do their jobs, and return to their families unscathed. It’s going to require vigilance and strong oversight by the FTA and focus by unions like the TWU to ensure success, but this absolutely is progress.”
The General Directive builds and adds teeth to provisions in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that the TWU aggressively lobbied for. Transit agencies must complete comprehensive safety assessments of the assault risks their worker face, identify mitigation strategies and implement them. Agencies that do not comply face potential loss of federal funding.
Strategies could include protective barriers, personal safety training, de-escalation training and patrol plans.