Silver Spring, MD – Calling the Federal Transit Administration’s (FTA) General Directive on transit worker assault an encouraging first step, the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), the largest union representing transit workers in the U.S., calls on the agency to do more to ensure the safety of transit workers and riders. This is the first-ever General Directive issued by the agency.
“Each day, hundreds of transit workers are assaulted on the job. ATU members have been shot, stabbed, and struck with canes, fire extinguishers, screwdrivers, hammers, and garbage cans. They have been attacked with pepper spray, burned with hot coffee, and doused in urine and spit. Bus drivers have been robbed for pocket change and operators are regularly sexually assaulted. This constitutes a regular day on the job in the transit industry,” says ATU International President John Costa. “We applaud the FTA for acknowledging for the first time that transit workers are facing hazards on a ‘national level.’ However, in order to keep operators safe, transit systems need to begin immediately the process of retrofitting all fixed route buses with quality floor-to-ceiling-to-windshield barriers to protect transit bus operators from continual vicious attacks.”
FTA’s directive requiring transit agencies to conduct a safety risk assessment related to assaults on transit workers and to identify safety risk mitigations or strategies to improve transit worker safety using joint labor-management Safety Committees is great news for transit workers.
The FTA’s action is a welcome contrast to the Trump Administration, which in 2019 issued a notice in the Federal Register disgracefully stating that it was “not necessary” to take any further actions to address transit worker assaults.
“The ATU is grateful for the FTA’s step forward today,” said Costa. “The agency will soon learn what we have known for years: transit agencies across the country are not doing nearly enough to stop the constant attacks on our members.”
“Once this information is collected, we hope the agency will then pivot immediately to requiring minimum vehicle safety standards for transit buses, as authorized by the FAST Act nine years ago,” Costa continued.
“Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, airplane pilots have been protected in the cockpit by barriers. Now, it is time to provide bus drivers with the same level of protections. Like planes, all unauthorized persons should be blocked from gaining access to the bus operator workstation,” said Costa. “Until such infrastructure is mandated by federal regulations, we will continue to see bus operators get hijacked, punched, slapped, shot, stabbed, sexually assaulted, and spit upon. Minimum vehicle safety standards for U.S. buses are needed right now! Not One More operator needs to go through this horror!”