The Transport Workers Union of America’s years of advocacy for trackworker safety is paying off. The Federal Transit Administration and Department of Transportation announced Tuesday a Final Rule requiring minimum safety standards to protect trackworkers from on-the-job injuries and deaths.
The Final Rule requires local transit agencies around the country to follow federal standards that include worker safety briefings, training sessions, and reports detailing near miss incidents. Most importantly, workers have the right to refuse work they think is unsafe. The Final Rule comes nearly one year after Hilarion Joseph, a New York City trackworker and father of six children, was fatally struck by a train while performing flagging duties.
“This is a massive step forward for safety. President Joe Biden and DOT are TELLING transit agencies across the USA their top priority must be protecting critically important workers. We do critical work in perilous conditions and now we have the right to refuse inherently dangerous assignments,” said TWU International President John Samuelsen.
The Final Rule builds on recent safety efforts from the FTA. In April, the FTA published another rule requiring transit agencies to integrate frontline worker representatives into safety review and policy committees. The Biden Administration has also taken serious steps to reduce violence against transit workers through the recent General Directive regarding transit worker assaults.
In August, an FTA audit revealed more than 260 near miss incidents on the New York City Subway, the nation’s busiest mass transit system. The FTA concluded the Metropolitan Transportation Authority did not use their own standards for reviewing track safety incidents, instead simply posting safety notices in breakrooms without making any procedural or management changes.
Collectively, these actions are building on each other to raise the level of safety in every transit system.
“The Final Rule requiring minimum safety standards, the General Directive requiring safety risk assessments, and the FTA audit rightfully exposing the MTA’s poor safety culture show the strong commitment the Biden administration has for transit safety,” Samuelsen said. “The TWU will continue to fight for safe workplaces for all transit workers, but this Final Rule gives trackworkers more power to keep themselves safe on the job.”