Bosses, politicians blame workers for NY derailments

Reuters/Eduardo Munoz

NEW YORK — Long Island Rail Road bosses and capitalist politicians wasted no time blaming workers for an Oct. 8 derailment near New Hyde Park, New York, that injured 33 people, including seven rail workers.

“It looks like it will be human error,” claimed Chuck Schumer, senator from New York, echoing company officials. “Probably someone who left the switch in the wrong position.”

On Sept. 29, a New Jersey Transit train crashed in the Hoboken station, killing one person and injuring more than 100.

The incidents have a common feature — train management has reduced the operating crew to a single person on the locomotive and now they blame that one crew member.

In an unstated concession to rail unionists’ demands for a two-person crew on all engines, NJ Transit management announced Oct. 5 that it would now require a second crew member to join the engineer in the train cab when the train approaches a station. The only problem is this requires a conductor to do two jobs at the same time.

“The bosses are to blame for unsafe conditions on the railroads,” Jacob Perasso, Socialist Workers Party candidate and opponent of Schumer for U.S. Senate and a freight rail conductor, told the Militant Oct. 12. “They impose speed-up, crew cuts and long hours, and their neglect of maintenance of trains and tracks put passengers and rail workers in danger every day. The SWP demands two-person crews on the engine and union control of safety.”

— MAGGIE TROWE