Chiarello Slams Management on Radio Outages; Bus Defects

President John V. Chiarello at the MTA Board Meeting
President John V. Chiarello at the MTA Board Meeting

FEBRUARY 25—At this morning's MTA Board Meeting, Local 100 President John Chiarello addressed transit bosses, taking them to task for ignoring ongoing problems with the citywide bus radio system and pointing out other grave safety concerns.

"The outages to date have not been addressed with the union. The vendor's records have not been supplied to the union for all the updates that are happening," he said. 

Chiarello said the union didn't know whether the Bus Operators stuck in high snowdrifts during this week's blizzard, the worst in 10 years, were able to reach the command center on their radios.

Today's demand that management address the issue came on the heels of a press conference late last month when Local 100, along with a coalition of transit unions including bus supervisors, charged that union members who were assaulted on the job tried and failed to get help via their bus radios because of system malfunctions. The union demanded more information about the vendor, Clever Devices, which has the contract to digitally upgrade the system.

MTA CEO Janno Lieber has dismissed the union's concerns, telling reporters the issue of bus radio outages is "a red herring."

Chiarello also brought attention to the issue of buses with brake problems being put into service without proper regard for safety. "There were 23 buses which were redlined, which means they should have been put on hold but [management] turned around and put these buses out. The union brought back 23 of them. 21 of them had brake defects. That's a real issue."

He vowed that Local 100 will be conducting ongoing inspections, going from depot to depot, to ensure that buses are safe for our members and the riding public.