President Chiarello Appears on NY1 to Discuss the Hazards of OPTO: See Video Below

NOVEMBER 19—Appearing live on Pat Kiernan’s popular morning show on Spectrum’s New York 1, Local 100 President John Chiarello told the host why NY Governor Kathy Hochul should sign the union’s bill mandating two person train operation in New York City Transit.

The overriding reason, Chiarello explained, is safety, with efficiency a close second. He recounted 2022’s subway shooting and smoke bomb attack on the N Train in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, where the heroic actions of Conductor Raven Haynes, in evacuating passengers calmly and professionally, reduced panic and may have saved lives.

“The Conductors are the eyes and ears of the subway system,” Chiarello said, noting that they see crimes in progress and, if a train is stopped by an emergency between stations, are responsible for evacuations along with the Train Operator.

He told Kiernan that camera systems which the MTA says can give a Train Operator a view of the entire train are "not geared for that right now."

On the issue of efficiency, Kiernan said that “the brashness” of New Yorkers would keep doors open if they were only automated and not subject to a Conductor’s control. Chiarello agreed: “You would be in a station for ten minutes, because the doors would just constantly be blocked, because everybody sticks their hand in. That’s the beauty of having a Conductor, because they are trained to know how to open and close the doors.”

The bill in Albany to keep two transit workers on trains is a common sense approach, Chiarello said, adding that the MTA could not “just flip a switch and take away all the Conductors.”

He also noted that there is contractual language supporting two person train operation between the union and the MTA.

The immediate impact of the bill would be to mandate two person crews even on the short trains, including the G and the Times Square shuttle, which now run only with one Train Operator. The MTA contends that it doesn’t have the funds to pay for that additional staffing.