The city's largest transit union is calling on the MTA to strengthen safety measures at subway terminals after train driver Mylan Pollack was stabbed to death in Brooklyn last week.
Members of Transportation Workers Union Local 100, which represents more than 40,000 bus and subway workers, rallied Thursday outside the Crown Heights-Utica Avenue station at the end of Line 4. This is the same station where the stabbing incident by a 60-year-old repeat offender occurred. – Walleye twice on October 8th.
“We need real action now. Our members face an unacceptable risk, and current policies will not solve it,” TWU Local 100 President Richard Davis said in a statement. said.
“It's time for the MTA to step up and take responsibility for protecting the workers who keep this city running.”
The union is calling for changes to regulations to prevent transit workers from working alone during rail suspensions.
Conductors and drivers are asked to walk with passengers inside empty trains to ensure that no passengers are still on board.
In the past three years, 31 MTA employees have been assaulted while cleaning trains, “further proving the urgent need for safety reform,” the union said.
Authorities said Pollack was trying to clean the car by himself when he asked passenger Jonathan Davalos, 27, to get out of the car.
Instead of complying, Davalos became enraged, followed Pollack onto the platform and allegedly attacked him so violently that he required at least two surgeries.
The union is also calling on MTA police to be stationed at all stations where trains are being evacuated and available to help if passengers become violent.
“These are not just suggestions, they are life-saving measures,” Canella Gomez, vice president of TWU Local 100 Rapid Transit Operations, said in a statement. “Our members should never face these dangers alone. Stronger policies and faster responses are needed to keep the public safe.”
Union members are also calling for frequent meetings between MTA leadership and TWU Local 100 “to review and implement enhanced safety protocols for frontline workers.”
“Transportation workers must be respected and protected!” union members chanted at a rally Thursday. “That's enough!”
Some held placards that read, “We don't come to work to be punching bags,” and “Are you okay today, or were you just lucky?”
New York City Police Department data (covering the period Jan. 1 to Oct. 6) shows 30 attacks against MTA subway workers across the city, up from 44 reported during the same period in 2023. The number of cases decreased to
In one such incident last month, suspect Robert Ray, 33, randomly punched a female station employee in the face in Midtown, saying he did it because “a voice in my head was talking to me.” prosecutors said.
In late May, an on-duty MTA conductor was punched in the face while trying to break up an argument at a Queens subway station, authorities said.
Earlier that month, a deranged commuter tackled and slammed a train driver to the floor of the train as he removed passengers from a train in Queens to take it to a waiting area, police said.
In March, another train conductor in the Bronx was hit in the head with a glass bottle by a violent stranger, police said.
New York City Transit Authority Interim President Demetrius Crichlow did not directly address the union's demands, but said the MTA is working to keep repeat offenders off the streets.
“Prior to his vicious assault on the train operator, Jonathan Davalos had assaulted another subway employee and passenger on separate days,” Crichlow said in a statement Friday.
“This recidivism is why the MTA has been fighting in Albany for tougher penalties for crimes that occur within our transit system, and why the MTA has been fighting in Albany for tougher penalties for crimes that occur within our transit system, and is why our employees, customers, and police officers are being assaulted in the strongest possible way. This is why we seek aggressive prosecution,” the statement said.
“TWU Local 100 is pleased to join that effort and support the NYPD and District Attorneys as they work to impose the greatest possible consequences.”
An agency spokesperson said the MTA will continue to discuss safety issues with its “labor partners.”
