Equity in Sacrifice - Immediate Novel COVID-19 Pandemic Protections for Essential and Transit-Reliant Workers, Operators, People of Color, and Other Marginalized Communities

Re: Equity in Sacrifice - Immediate Novel COVID-19 Pandemic Protections for Essential and Transit-Reliant Workers, Operators, People of Color, and Other Marginalized Communities

From:

To: Governor Hogan, Secretary Slater, Administrator Quinn, Senate President Ferguson, House Speaker Jones, Baltimore Regional General Assembly Delegation, Mayor Young, County Executives Pittman, Olszewski, Glassman, Ball; City Council President Scott, County Council Chairs Pickard, Bevins, Vincenti, Jung; Baltimore City, Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Harford, and Howard County Council Members 

The novel COVID-19 pandemic has given Baltimore and the region more than a haunting, fearful crisis. It has also highlighted the essential role public transportation plays and must continue to play in our society while exposing the weaknesses in our system that are putting essential workers, transit employees, and transit riders at inordinate risk. We can take steps now that will not only protect transit workers and provide safer transportation for other essential workers during the pandemic but will also set better standards for the future. We urge you to exercise your authority and influence to meet the most basic challenge at the root of our requests: The lack of equity in sacrifice.  

Historical patterns of “compound discrimination,” the combination of race, income, citizenship, geography, employment discrimination, etc. have further exacerbated inequities in burdens falling hardest on marginalized communities during this crisis. Recent reports highlight the increased susceptibility to COVID-19 in African American and Latino communities due to pervasive underlying health conditions indicating that implicit and explicit racial and ethnic biases in health care in Maryland are active contributors to the ravages of the pandemic. 

Therefore, we the above-signed, regionally based stakeholders request that you take the following actions throughout the duration of the novel COVID-19 pandemic and beyond as appropriate. We can meet the health safety requirements of frontline health care workers and other essential employees including the working transit-reliant, communities of color, and other marginalized communities including people with disabilities in this unusual period of great peril. 

Prioritize, screen and support frontline workers and public transportation passengers 

• Pandemic-protective measures, personal protective equipment, medical devices, and health services shall be available to all essential employees including but not limited to frontline healthcare workers, grocery store personnel, food workers, delivery drivers, public transportation service employees, transit-reliant riders, caretakers, and sanitation workers who function at great personal risk to maintain the social fabric.

•  Each essential worker, bearing essential status indicia, must be screened for pandemic disease symptoms upon reporting to work. Health care services shall be made available immediately and paid sick leave must be offered where needed.

•  Essential workers shall have immediate access to personal protective equipment and must receive testing, medical observation, contact-tracing, and treatment in a timely manner under the supervision of expert health care providers. Life-saving prioritization is the only proof that we value the essential worker. 

•  Enforce the ten Safe Service Policies outlined by the Amalgamated Transit Union with the addition of more frequent cleaning and thorough sanitization of all public transportation vehicles to protect riders, operators, and the general public. 

Enforce consistent social distancing and health protective policies in public transportation

•  Establish and enforce consistently the social distancing and protective measures policy in public transportation vehicles that includes requiring passengers to don face coverings before boarding and to practice guarded coughing and sneezing while in transit.

•  Seats on public transit vehicles shall be visibly designated for use at the recommended social distance thereby relieving the driver/operator of the responsibility for seating patterns.

•  Limit cars on certain streets to ensure there is ample space for appropriate social distancing and safe passage for pedestrians, cyclists, scooters, and people boarding and exiting transit stops and stations. 

Direct employers to make accommodations for transit-reliant workers  

• Issue guidance to employers to offer staggered starts and shift schedule flexibility in conjunction with transit service schedules to reduce crowding while in transit, maintaining social distancing to “flatten the curve” and to enforce job-site social distancing for transit-reliant employees and all others in the workforce.

• Urge employers to conduct a survey of transit-reliant employees and consult with them on the best practices that improve their workplace health, safety, and productivity with fair compensation for the increased risks to themselves and their families.

• Direct employers not to penalize transit-reliant workers who report late due to delays in transit service and to revisit the widely observed 3x15-minute late dismissal rule. 

Transparency and accountability by state agencies in data collection and reportage in transit policy decision-making 

• Use – do not merely collect – transparent racial, ethnic, geographic, and other data describing in detail the dimensions of the crisis including number of cases, fatalities, how transmitted and those affected with special attention to African American, Latino, immigrant, low-income households, and the transit-reliant.

• Create programs based on verifiable data and scientific advice that implement equitable protective, testing, surveillance, contact-tracing, mitigating, treatment, and recovery measures to contain and abate the pandemic. 

• The Baltimore Regional Transportation Board shall provide analyses and mapping overlays of PM 2.5 exposure by census tract, demographic profiles, hospitalizations, and morbidity in COVID-19 cases particularly given the added emphasis of a leading study projecting higher death rates in the pandemic for those frontline communities exposed to long-term pollution.

•  MTA must share with the general public its underlying rationales for each reduction in service or suspension of transit routes and offer alternative routes to the affected riders. 

Allocate transit stimulus money for COVID-19 related impacts 

• All funds from the federal government for transit assistance for COVID-19 must be used for COVID-19 related impacts on public transportation and not diverted to other purposes.

We thank you for the leadership each of you has provided in helping to assure the health and safety of our communities during this crisis. At the same time, we urge you to ensure equity in the burdens and sacrifice and all matters pertaining to public transportation now and in the future. Equity is fundamental in a resilient society.