By: Hellen Zaboulani
NYC transit workers have been doing essential work and are expected to show up for work despite the risk amid coronavirus. In light of this, some of these workers feel they should be entitled to some preferential treatment when it comes to shopping — such as being permitted to skip lines and avoid product limits. For now, these special privileges are reserved for police officers, emergency responders and doctors. But some argue that transit employee’s are doing “front-line” work as well, and should be given the courtesy.
“As far as first-responders go, we’re taking them to work — and we’re not being afforded any form of courtesy or respect,” subway operator Adam Black told the Post. Black says he tried to explain this and evade the line in a Brooklyn supermarket, but to no avail. In a video he posted on Facebook, he told the grocery store security guards, “I’m dying out here. … My brethren are dying. … We’re the ones taking the first responders where they gotta go.” One of the guards acknowledged that transit workers are “essential” workers, but he said the privileges are still only for “first responders.”
As reported by the NY Post, the Transport Workers Union Local 100, which Black is a member of, said it has had a staggering 42 workers die from COVID-19. That is more casualties than was suffered by the city police, firefighters and EMTs — combined. “We are getting the essential workers to their jobs. Dozens of transit workers have died,” said union President Tony Utano. “[Transit workers] absolutely should be recognized for all that they are doing and have sacrificed.”
MTA bus driver Letty Daniels, 33, also said she tried to convince store managers to allow her to bypass the line or to purchase two packs of disinfecting wipes instead of the limit one. “We’re not saying we’re first-responders per se, but we are front-line workers. We’re on the front lines. The doctors can’t get to where they’re going, the nurses can’t get to where they’re going” without mass transit,” Daniels said. “We’re basically risking our lives, and we’re not even getting the respect that’s due.”
The MTA said it fully backs the transit workers’ push. “New York City Transit’s work force are truly heroes of this crisis,” agency spokesman Shams Tarek said in a statement. “The MTA supports any effort to provide them with a priority access to benefits being afforded our region’s heroes.”
