Transportation Worker Unions Call for More Protections, Banned Passenger List

New York, NY (WorkersCompensation.com) – Transportation workers’ unions are applauding changes in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) that will provide them with more protections, but some would still like to see national banned passenger lists.   

According to the Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO, a provision of the IIJA would redefine assault in a way that better protects transportation workers and require transit agencies to develop risk reduction programs that would protect workers from assaults.  

Under the prior definition of assault with the Federal Transit Administration, a transit worker was only considered to have been assaulted if they had to be hospitalized for more than 48 hours, or if they suffered certain injuries – like severe bleeding, or damage to the nerves, muscles, tendons or internal organs.   

“The way they define(d) assault is really odd,” Greg Regan, president of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO told Roll Call. “You could have a worker with a broken nose, and it would not be considered an assault under the current guidelines. Similarly, a driver who had hot coffee thrown on him would not be considered assaulted.”  

Now, provisions within the IIJA change the definition of assault to “a circumstance in which and individual knowingly, without lawful authority or permission, and with intent to endanger the safety of any individual, or with a reckless disregard for the safety of human life, interferes with, disables, or incapacitates a transit worker while the transit worker is performing the duties of the transit worker."  

Attacks against transit workers have been on the rise since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. In February, a bus driver in the Bronx was attacked by a passenger with a tree branch. In March, a kicked a Richmond, Va., bus driver in the head.   

This past week, police reported that a Metropolitan Transit Authority conductor in Lower Manhattan was hit in the face with an object. And in Chicago, a Chicago Transit Authority operator was pushed onto the tracks after trying to help someone who said their phone had fallen onto the tracks, police said.   

On Saturday, a group of CTA bus drivers and train operators demanded that CTA provide them with more protection as attacks on transit workers increase.   

“All of us here have been assaulted or threatened with assault,” Eric Basir, organizer with the Chicago Transit Justice Coalition, said at the protest. “The trauma we endure is wearing away at our souls. … Our safety is neglected by the CTA.”  

Nuria Fernandez, Federal Transit Administration Administrator, said agencies have until July 31 to begin work on safety plans, with a deadline of Dec. 31 to complete them. The IIJA requires that the plans be crafted by labor and management, and be updated every year as long as the law is in place.  

“FTA will continue working with labor and management throughout the country to ensure those committees are created and that they are effective at protecting American transit workers,” said an FTA spokesperson said, adding “It is unacceptable for the men and women who connect all of us to our communities to fear for their safety at work.”  

But bus drivers and train conductors aren’t the only ones who have seen violent acts against them rise. Flight attendants and airline employees have also reported being kicked, punched, groped or hit.  

The Transport Workers Union of America, a union representing more than 65,000 aviation workers, said what is needed is a national banned passenger list. The union has been calling for such a list since 2021, when unruly passenger incidents on planes skyrocketed. According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), as of March 28, there have been 1,035 unruly passenger reports in the skies. Of those 668 were mask-related, the FAA said. Only 302 of the incidents are being investigated and only 136 have had FAA enforcement action initiated. In 2021, the FAA reported nearly 6,000 unruly passenger incidents.   

Just last week, a passenger attacked a flight attendant at the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. Brandon Smith, 32, was arrested and faces assault charges after he allegedly attacked a female flight attendant there. Police said the incident is being investigated and may be prosecuted as a hate crime.   

Recently, U.S. Reps. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., and Jack Reed, D-R.I., introduced legislation that would establish a list of “abusive passengers” – specifically passengers who intimidate, threaten or assault any aviation worker – in the sky or on the ground. Any passenger on the list would be prohibited from boarding a commercial aircraft.  

The TWU said it applauds the legislation.   

“Our members have had to deal with this violent, full moon atmosphere for far too long. The TWU strongly believes this Banned Passenger List will ease some of the pain our members are experiencing and make our skies safer,” TWU International President John Samuelsen said.