NEW YORK CITY, April 1—Up to now eight Metropolitan Transit Authority workers have died during the raging Covid-19 outbreak.
While their death certificates will determine the virus as cause of death, their real killers were the racist MTA New York City Transit and its inaction to protect its mostly Black and Latin workers from the disease! Given the MTA bosses callous response more will dies as the ink on this issue dries.
The deaths were avoidable. But what’s it to the bosses if a few workers die in the line of duty, so long as the profit machine keeps rolling?
Capitalism has worked overtime to show the workers that our lives are expendable. Progressive Labor Party members working in the MTA continue building bonds with co-workers, and backing demands for MTA to provide sufficient proper protective equipment and sanitary facilities to keep us safe. Some MTA workers also demand housing for homeless workers on the trains— and end the racist cleaning disparities between stations in wealthier and more impoverished communities. At the same time though, none of that is enough. A new world is necessary so such deaths never happen again, either in the MTA, or anywhere else on this planet—communism.
No protection
The deceased eight include bus operators, station cleaners, track workers, conductors, and bus maintainers.
One of the deaths occurred on March 28, when a train operator died of smoke inhalation, heroically giving his own life to bring his train and passengers into a station after reports that someone in the second car squirted accelerant onto a shopping cart and lit it on fire. Though he didn’t die from Covid-19, capitalism and the increasingly unstable atmosphere it is creating with this disease brings out more anti-communist attacks by workers against other workers. Had the operator had protective gear against smoke, he likely would be alive today. But the MTA can’t be bothered with that either.
Transit lies, workers die
Until very recently, the MTA was refusing to provide PPE (proper protective equipment) to its front line workers against Covid-19—and lied about not having to offer it. In early March, they warned a train operator who wore one during his shift not to do so, because of “public perception.” These bosses care more optics than workers’ safety.They’ve failed to properly sanitize our train and bus operating positions and crew room facilities while launching a PR campaign to look as if they’re cleaning the whole system. On transit Facebook pages, many subway train operators and conductors have posted pictures of dirty wipes after taking it upon themselves to clean.
Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 100 has admitted that at least one of these deaths could’ve been prevented if proper PPE had been distributed. But as the saying goes, a day late and a dollar short! Their acknowledgments won’t bring back our deceased co-workers.
Local 100 has done the bare minimum to secure such protections for us. Even with the MTA agreeing to offer us some pathetic equipment after discussions, this union has shown it’s willing to wait for workers to die before lifting a finger. Under capitalism, today’s unions serve the bosses and crack the whip to keep workers in line and from revolting.
The masks MTA will now provide us with are not the recommended N95 masks, but instead flimsy surgical ones. This persists despite a 2012 pandemic memo the agency put out, mandating they stockpile a six week supply of N95 masks, hand sanitizer, and cleaning wipes for workers.
A visit to any train or bus reporting location for workers shows that any available sanitizer is in rare supply—save for the NY State issued one, made through racist, super-exploitative prion labor. And none of these locations are providing sanitary wipes.
No testing kits for workers
Workers are also upset that MTA Chairman Patrick Foye, who recently contracted the virus, was able to get a test so quickly. Meanwhile we have to jump through hoops just to get one. The number of transit workers with the virus has quickly shot past 600, with over 3,330 ordered to self-quarantine after exposure, as of late March (New York Daily News, 3/31).  The MTA’s Covid 19 hotline has flooded with calls from workers worried about their health. Yet this was the same man who downplayed our concerns, now stricken with the same disease he has allowed to ravage us.
Lack of access to these tests means the real numbers of infected could be even much higher than the MTA’s numbers, spreading the disease and not even knowing it. Foye can take as much time as he needs to recover.
Unfortunately, workers will have to come in without even knowing they have the virus, since testing is virtually impossible for us to acquire, if we don’t feel ill.
More are calling in sick by the day, forcing more service cuts and fewer trains, which leads to heavier ridership and more crowds—a breeding ground for Covid-19. The racist bosses don’t care about forcing their workers and customers to suffer as long as they can save a buck and themselves.
In furthering its efforts to appear protective of workers, MTA recently implemented “social distancing” rules for crews to abide by. We have to maintain six feet from one another, which is virtually impossible to do, given how small many of our crew rooms and locker facilities are.
The MTA has changed the regular weekday train schedule to a modified Saturday schedule—because multiple crews are incapacitated—the rooms have become even more crowded. Under capitalism, being sick is a profit scheme for the bosses.
Liberate transit system with communism
The MTA continues to put profits over workers’ lives, and it is crafting an angry and fearful atmosphere here. Many of us are wondering when, not if, we’ll come into contact with someone who has the virus. Chances are we already have.
We’ve had to take things into our own hands, buying our own cleaning supplies, and hoping that shields us. RTO, the MTA’s train division, people are booking sick as a form of protest, along with being legitimately ill.
Some bus operators sectioned off their front sections, essentially giving free rides, as people entered from the back door. This was before the agency made it an official policy for now.
These modest actions by workers show that workers can and will work in the interest of serving our class.
But the ruling class wants us afraid, so we wont organize as one.  We can’t have reliance on their stooges, like Governor Andrew Cuomo, who is cutting Medicaid from the state budget during this emergency.
Transit workers and riders will continue suffering under these racist crooks until we come together and fightback collectively for our health, and eventually, for a communist revolution!