NYU study finds 89% of MTA workers were harassed or assaulted during pandemic

August 23, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

MTA worker Duane Clark worked to sanitize surfaces at the Avenue X subway station. Photo: Kevin Hagen/AP

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CITYWIDE — A NEW SURVEY conducted by NYU researchers has found that 89% of MTA front-line workers experienced either harassment, physical assault or both from passengers during the pandemic, reports the New York Post. Nearly half of the 1,300 workers who responded reported being the victims of physical assault, with nearly 70% of female workers saying they had faced violence from the public. The MTA disputed the findings, saying that the authority’s own statistics show that just 11% of city workers had documented incidents of harassment or assault since 2021, and accused the study’s authors, who worked with the transit workers’ union, of intending to “attack the NYPD and stir panic.” Transit workers on the ground, however, pushed back against this claim: “It’s happening almost every day. Most of them are unreported. Some people report, some people stay quiet,” the Post was told by dispatcher Mohammed Quader, who was bludgeoned with a hammer while on the job in 2022 and who still suffers panic attacks from the incident.

Epidemiology professor Robyn Gershon, a co-author, said the study was prompted by NYU’s observation of trauma like Quader’s, and cited a breakdown in the fabric of society caused by the pandemic: “COVID was almost like letting the cat out of the bag, all bets were off. People could act with impunity in all sorts of ways.”

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