#‘Appalling’: NYC transit leaders blast MTA’s ‘failed’ COVID-19 response

An MTA transit worker who survived COVID-19 lashed into agency brass Tuesday over their response to the pandemic, which has killed 131 transit workers to date.

“We was definitely not treated fairly,” said Robert Kelley, an official with Transport Workers Union Local 100, in video testimony to state legislators.

The MTA’s “due diligence was to keep their workforce safe, and they failed to do so,” said Kelley, who spent three weeks in the hospital recovering from the virus.

As the pandemic brought New York City to a halt in early March, the MTA initially prohibited employees from wearing masks at all, citing CDC guidance at the time. At least two transit workers had already died by the time the agency agreed to distribute masks to employees.

“To sit up here today and listen to [MTA Chairman Pat] Foye say that all along we’ve had this PPE in storage somewhere, and not afford us the opportunity to use them, well, quite frankly it’s appalling,” Kelley said in response to Foye’s claim the agency “never had a shortage of PPE.”

Thousands of transit workers called out sick in March and April, forcing massive subway cancellations. The MTA established a 24-hour call line for workers with symptoms that quickly crashed due to an influx of calls.

“Workers were calling to ask if they should go to work or not due to potential exposure, only to be told someone will get back to them in a day or so. People came to work that should not have,” Long Island Rail Road union chief Anthony Simon testified Tuesday.

“The bottom line is nothing seemed to be clear to provide the needed support to our frontline workers, and constantly changed,” he said — adding that the “inconsistencies and flawed practices… continued throughout the pandemic and in some cases remain today.”

The vast majority of the MTA’s COVID-19 victim were members of TWU Local 100, the MTA’s largest union.

Local 100 president Tony Utano said his organization “fought for every change possible … to mitigate transmission of the disease” — including the suspension of fingerprint time-clocks, the implementation of rear-door boarding on buses and the distribution of masks to workers and straphangers.

“The fact that this union had to threaten service unless bus operators and conductors who wanted to wear their own masks were allowed to do so reveals the depth of the lack of understanding of what was happening in our country,” he told lawmakers.

“No one was ready for this crisis; not Washington, not Albany, not City Hall and certainly not the MTA.”

MTA spokesman Ken Lovett defended the agency’s response, pointing to the distribution of millions of pieces of protective equipment, and the establishment of a “generous benefit program” for the families of workers killed by the virus.

“The MTA has managed this unprecedented public health crisis in real time, taking nation-leading actions every step of the way to protect our employees and customers, even when it meant breaking ranks with public health officials like the CDC when data dictated it,” said rep Ken Lovett.

“During this time, we also have worked closely with our unions and will continue to do so as we fight this ongoing pandemic and prepare for a potential second wave.”

Additional reporting by Bernadette Hogan