The Honorable Jason Chaffetz, Chairman

January 4, 2017

The Honorable Jason Chaffetz, Chairman

House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

2157 Rayburn House Office Building

Washington, D.C. 20515

The Honorable Elijah Cummings, Ranking Member

House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

2471 Rayburn House Office Building

Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Chairman Chaffetz and Ranking Member Cummings:

Thank you for the opportunity to testify on the SafeTrack Program and the challenges that are facing the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) in the near and distant future at the December 2nd hearing at the Subcommittee on Transportation and Public Assets.

As President/Business Agent of ATU Local 689 let me begin by reiterating the position of commitment that Raymond Jackson, 2nd Vice President gave to you. ATU Local 689 is committed to always work with WMATA to ensure that it provides safe, reliable service to the riding public, and our members.

Before engaging in the request to provide four items to “Make WMATA Good Again,” there are some very specific statements and questions that were a misrepresentation of facts and information, and I’d like to take a moment to clear up those misconceptions.

Misconceptions

The first example is the obvious discussion that has been taking place surrounding the Congressional Compact and our mutually agreed upon Collective Bargaining Agreement. The arbitration process that we have through the Compact is the most civilized way of handling disputes that you will find throughout the United States. Because of that document, Local 689 has not engaged in a legal strike of WMATA since 1974. Instead we rely on final and binding arbitration to settle labor disputes that occur. The Compact doesn’t stop a member from being terminated for wrongdoing, if they have indeed done wrong. If anything, it operates like our legal system, and makes sure that low level employees are protected and "innocent until proven guilty." There is no contractual language which stops WMATA from taking a disciplinary action again a represented employee. There is only the promise of a "fair trial," so to speak. There have been, and will continue to be many examples of decisions that Local 689 may, or may not, agree with but we abide by the decision rendered by an arbitrator whether it is in our favor or not. “Blowing the Compact up” as some have cavalierly suggested, will not cure the systemic safety problems of WMATA, nor will it allow GM Wiedefeld to disregard worker's rights to a fair and impartial investigation into the allegations of wrong doings.

Please respectfully understand that ATU Local 689 does not hire or fire any employee, that’s WMATA’s purview as an employer. We do not write or create the safety rules that all employees are required to follow, we do not train or test for qualifications. We do not have a seat on the Metro Board, and plead as we might, we cannot seem to get WMATA to understand that until they treat the union as a respected stakeholder in the safety and welfare of this transit company, the culture will not change. Firing and barking orders does not create a safety culture, it creates a workforce that performs out of fear and does not ask questions. Many of our members are just the foot soldiers following the commands that they are given by the General. Out of fear they will not question their orders. An understanding of the reasons why a task is performed and input into the task being performed is what a consistent and well trained workforce requires.

After the 2009 crash which took the life of the operator and passengers in the worst train crash in the history of Metro, the NTSB discussed for the first time the “lack of a safety culture at WMATA." This term was used after years of making corrective recommendations to WMATA only to have them ignored. I have personally testified in front of Congress many times, I have discussed this lack of culture with current and past GM’s, I have taken the issue to the Safety Committee of the WMATA Board, and no one has asked for a conversation or a solution that would require the steps necessary to change the culture in mind until now. A true safety culture is what stops planes from falling out of the sky and keeps nuclear power plants from melting down. All transit systems should be required to have the same, and the FTA should be required to move quickly to provide guidance.

Between 2004 and 2016, eleven WMATA employees have lost their lives...Michael Waldron was killed in October 2005. Jong Lee was killed in May 2006. Keith Dodson was killed in October 2006. Leslie Cherry was killed in November 2006. Matthew Brooks was killed in December 2006. Jeanice McMillan was killed in June 2009. Michael Nash was killed in August 2009. John Moore was killed in September 2009. Sung Oh was killed in January 2010. Jeffrey Garrard was killed in January 2010. Thomasine Smith was killed in December 2013.

As you can see, ATU Local 689 has skin in this game! We have a personal reason to need to change the systemic unsafe culture that is felt throughout this company.

Representative Glenn Grothman asked 2 questions at the hearing: 1) He asked about the incident that resulted in loss of communication for 40 minutes. Without specifics, please note that we are looking into the question and will get back to you with an answer.

2) Mr. Grothman asked about the cost of healthcare per member, per month. Medical and prescription for 11,597 enrollees is $1,080 per member, per month. I also want to address Mr. Wiedefeld's answer when he stated that the cost of healthcare is decided through an arbitrator. That is not entirely true. Our healthcare costs and carriers are negotiated, and decisions about our healthcare are decided through the joint labor and management board of trustees.

The majority of our contractual agreements are made through negotiations. All concessions and agreements are mutually agreed upon between the parties, whether it pertains to wages, pension or healthcare.

Representative Comstock in an attempt to answer Rep. Grothman’s question gave examples that she received from WMATA as an example of overpriced salaries. Those numbers are actually from the Rail Operations Control Center Controller, who has a base salary of $71-$80,000 dollars. The Controller's position is a high level supervisor’s position that is not represented by Local 689. Local 689 does not create or assign overtime for supervisors, nor do we negotiate their salaries.

Representative Comstock also asked a question about electronic devices. WMATA has a policy which was rewritten in 2011 that prohibits electronic devices just as Mr. Jackson stated. We are only allowed to utilize any electronic device in management-designated areas. The equipment that Mr. Wiedefeld mentioned they were looking into buying is a Track Geometry Vehicle, which was already purchased by the Authority for $8 million dollars between 2010 and 2012. It is not operated by Local 689 represented members. In fact, through final and binding arbitration, it was recently decided that WMATA engineers and supervisors were required to operate the machine. Its function is to inspect tracks. That is separate from photographing your work.

Representative Watson-Coleman was concerned about the person who would be able to work certain hours. WMATA has a Fatigue Policy to prohibit Local 689 represented employees from working the kind of hours that were worked by a supervisor.

Intimidation and Coercion

The committee has asked for “a list of all incidents in which union members were forced or pressured to falsify any records including but not limited to safety inspections, including names, dates, and locations.”

While we understand the committee’s request for specific information, including names, dates, and locations, Congress in 2007 designated OSHA as the proper venue for whistleblowers under the protection of the National Transit Systems Security Act, establishing retaliation protections for public transportation agency workers. As outlined below, ATU is committed to taking advantage of this forum, but we are not comfortable putting our members’ livelihoods in such blatant danger when there is a safe process that can be utilized. Even without names, dates and locations, we intend to speak on the specifics of our complaints, but first we want to address the lack of safety culture at WMATA because ultimately the safety culture at WMATA, or the lack thereof, contributes to the unhealthy culture of retaliation that is present at WMATA.

Intimidation and retaliation -- in lieu of preparation, cooperation, and communication -- has been and continues to be the WMATA way of doing business, especially for the agency’s track workers. WMATA’s first priority -- far and away -- is on-time performance, and anything that hinders that is responded to with retaliation, discipline and pushed under the rug. While other transit systems facing the same pressure to maintain schedule exercise proper discretion when it comes to the safety of its passengers, here, there are no limits on what supervisors will do or say to keep the trains running on time. When a section of track gets flagged for being worn, chipped, or broken, it of course leads to speed restrictions. Management at WMATA does whatever is necessary to avoid slowdowns, even if it compromises the safety of the workers and passengers.

In an effort to maintain a green priority code, which keeps the trains running safely, our members are regularly threatened by WMATA’s management team. Discipline for returning a form indicating a red or black priority code can be swift and heavy-handed. Our members have received retaliation in the form of drug tests for putting sections of track into speed restrictions, they have been banished to trash detail, punished with reassignment to locations that they have not picked according to the contract that are more than 20 miles away from their home, they have been physically intimidated by their supervisors, their overtime has been cut, again, going against the contract, and they have been threatened with insubordination when they have exerted their right to representation as a union member.

In addition to disciplining workers for reporting potential safety violations, WMATA assigns work to track workers knowing full well that such tasks cannot possibly be done properly (if at all) within the time limits of a shift. During a typical eight hour shift, a track worker is expected inspect about six miles of track, with many switches along the way. Keep in mind that they have to wait for the rights to get on the roadway safely, which means they generally only have about five hours to do their work. In some instances, track inspectors have been assigned up to 12 switches in a shift. It is simply not possible to take the time to measure and record everything that needs to be documented for 12 switches in five hours, and supervisors know it. When employees and in some instances, low level supervisors notify upper management that much more time is necessary to complete jobs properly and efficiently, overtime is sternly denied and our members are told to wrap up work by the end of the shift. Prior to the July incident, for example, workers routinely informed management that 45 minutes was needed to complete certain tasks, rather than the 15 minutes permitted by supervisors. In addition, because of deferred maintenance, which was a result of haphazard processes and procedures in the Track Inspection Department, work that couldn't get done during a shift was getting done through overtime. This practice was shut down effectively because of personal politics within WMATA, an issue that should never put safety on the backburner. Following the derailment, management finally agreed with the workers’ assessment of the workload. Incredibly, even after admitting that three times as many minutes were needed to complete work safely, supervisors continue to assign work with the same number of tasks, often with a wink and a nod.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on December 1st issued an accident report on the July 2016 derailment of a WMATA train at the East Falls Church interlocking. The report found that deteriorated ties allowed track gauges to widen, resulting in the derailment. NTSB's official probable cause places culpability on WMATA's maintenance practices, noting “…ineffective inspection and maintenance practices and inadequate safety oversight." This enforces exactly what we are saying when we complain about a lack of a safety culture at WMATA. At its core, the problem lies with the inability of WMATA to create a well-structured culture that holds training and safety above all else.

In summary, the system and framework put in place by WMATA’s management team in track maintenance not only invites but also authorizes and in some cases mandates incorrect information to be logged in on inspection forms. On the battlefield, there are Generals and there are Privates. When the commanding officer issues an order, subordinates are required to fall in line. WMATA management is putting our riders’ lives in jeopardy every time that they board a train.

ATU’s Plan to Fix WMATA

The committee asked Local 689 to provide its plan to fix WMATA, including four specific recommendations on what could be done differently. One of these four recommendations must be about what the union could be doing differently to fix the problems.

1)  Speaking Out

The most important thing that we as frontline workers can do to ensure public safety is to speak out. Due to legitimate concerns over job loss or other quality of work life issues (detailed above), workers at Metro have been hesitant to alert anyone, including government officials, about the retaliatory tactics used by supervisors to prevent speed restrictions on the tracks. If WMATA supervisors will not come forward with information that is critical for the safety of the riding public, we will. Silence can get people hurt or killed. ATU Local 689 pledges to educate our members on the whistleblower laws that protect transit workers and encourage them to speak out about safety hazards on both the bus and rail side, using the confidential close call system and the Office of the Inspector General as well as the NTSSA channels. Since 9/11, our passengers have been constantly told that when they “see something” they should “say something.” Transit workers will be just as vigilant, even when speaking out requires courage.