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MTA Workers: We want safety flags. MTA: It's Linden Yard; No you don't


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http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/mta-crew-claims-faced-retaliation-raising-red-flags-article-1.3869398

(Jeff Bachner/for New York Daily News)

A track crew in Brooklyn asked the MTA for a safer work site, but instead, its members say, they’re getting railroaded.

The four members of the crew were sent home repeatedly when they complained about their work conditions. Now they’re fighting for back pay. And three of them could lose their jobs.

“We (had) ‘seen something’ unsafe, we said something,” said Guy Bailey, a track worker for 32 years. “And we got penalized for it.”

Over a six-month period last year, Bailey and co-workers Maurice Jackson, Freddie Harris and James Hawkins-El were sent home multiple times from the Linden yard in East New York for demanding safety flagging.

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They say the rules — and their safety — required the flagging be in place to warn them of oncoming trains and stop runaway cars. Their employer, the MTA, said the work site is safe and does not require that level of precaution.

The track workers say they’re victims of retaliation, withheld wages and a disciplinary process that has dragged on for months.

All told, the crew members were sent home from the Linden yard 67 times, losing more than 250 hours in wages, between July 18 and Dec. 7, according to the workers’ time sheets. They claim they’re owed at least $8,500 in back wages.

But the Metropolitan Transportation Authority sees it differently and wants to fire three of the four crew members — Jackson, Bailey and Harris.

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The crew’s demands constituted “nonperformance,” according to the transit agency. Now the men are in various stages of the disciplinary process for termination.

Jackson — a Daily News Hometown Hero last year for organizing and coaching a Queens basketball program for schoolkids — said the rules are clear.

“Proper flagging must be done at all times,” said the father of two. “There is no exception (for) Linden yards.”

When he complained, he said, his union reps told him to “do the work and grieve it afterwards.”

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At Linden, the crew unloads materials like rails and wooden track ties from private freight tractor-trailers and cars that roll on tracks leading to the gated yard. They also load NYC Transit tractor-trailers and flat cars with material and equipment for the subway system.

Jackson, who joined the crew last March, said he was sent home 18 times. The first time was July 18, and, he said, he was working with Bailey and Harris, who also were told to leave the site.

The men say they were working between two sets of tracks to unload a private freight truck full of wooden ties. Meanwhile, transit work trains were sitting on an adjacent track, some with their engines running.

“Proper flagging,” to the crew, required a setup in which yellow flags would be placed on the track coming into the yard, along with two sets of red flags and a tripping device that activates a train’s emergency brake.

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The fight over flagging continued over the months.

MTA brass argued that all train movements in the yard are under management’s control, so full flagging is not needed.

The MTA says the work site is safe and does not require the level of precaution that the track workers are demanding.

John Chiarello, the rep for Transport Workers Union Local 100’s maintenance-of-way division, said the track crew demanded full flagging, with a worker in place — a safety effort that was not necessary at the Linden yard.

“This is not your regular scenario,” said Chiarello, who became the rep late last year. “This is not where trains are running back and forth. There’s not even a third rail in the yard.”

Still, Chiarello instituted a procedure this year with red flags and trip devices to “box in” the crew from harm.

But Jackson said he feels no sense of validation from Chiarello’s action.

“How can I feel vindicated?” he said Friday. “I’m up for termination. I feel betrayed. The union didn’t do anything about this until January.”

Union reps said they’ve defended their workers, whether in front of the state Labor Department, or in arbitration with the MTA.

TWU officials point to safety measures already in place that require private freight trains to be walked into the yard after coming to a full stop at the gate. In addition, the MTA has devices that can derail a train entering the yard before it’s able to hit anyone, and work trains in the yard are secured in place.

“We have not been shy about shutting down job sites whenever we feel our members are at risk of being injured,” TWU spokesman Pete Donohue said.

Each time someone in the crew was sent home, Jackson and Bailey would file a form on safety rules with management, writing that the crew received “improper flagging.”

In reply, management would respond that train movements were controlled.

The MTA and TWU cited a report from a state Labor Department inspector who determined, after visiting the Linden yard, that the crews’ safety complaints were “not sustained.”

The track crew appealed, noting the inspector’s own words: He “did not observe any work being done.” The labor inspector also cited the MTA’s own hazard assessment.

The crew members’ appeal ended with a ruling in the Labor Department’s favor.

Personal injury attorney Jonathan Reiter said the track crew members could take their chances in a civil court action, if an outside expert can back their claims.

The four track workers, without an attorney, filed a complaint against NYC Transit and the TWU local with the state Public Employment Relations Board.

Hawkins-El, who was sent home four times for “nonperformance,” believes he is facing retaliation by being placed on restricted duty for a hearing impairment.

MTA spokesman Shams Tarek denies allegations of retaliation. He said all safety protocols were followed at the yard and cited the Labor Department report.

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