Transit Workers Attacked

Safety at Work

Chicago, IL (WorkersCompensation.com) – A Chicago transit worker was attacked and thrown onto the subway tracks, one of a continuing line of attacks on transit workers across the country.

Officials in Chicago said the 70-year-old Chicago Transit Authority worker was attacked and thrown onto the Blue Line tracks in the West Loop on Thursday, August 22. He’d been a workers with the CTA for more than 27 years.

The attack happened around 7 a.m. Officials said the CTA customer service agent had left the booth. At that time, a man approached the worker and punched him, then shoved him onto the tracks.

"A passenger threw him onto the tracks," said Pennie McCoach, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 308. "A Good Samaritan and other customers and a coworker assisted him off the right of way off the track. I'm not sure what took place as to why the customer felt he needed to punch him in his face.”

Power was cut to the station and trains were stopped for some time agter the attack, officials said.

The CTA said it was working with law enforcement as it investigated the attack.

"CTA's close collaboration with the Chicago Police Department (CPD) has led to the swift arrest of the individual who assaulted a CTA employee at the Grand Blue Line station this morning,” the company said in a statement. “The offender was apprehended through the use of the recently expanded CTA Strategic Decision Support Center — a CPD facility where officers use real-time feeds from thousands of CTA cameras to relay information to officers in the field."

Officials said 23-year-old Amir Cordova was arrested Thursday morning, and was charged with three counts of aggravated battery, including one for battery against a victim over 60 and a transit employee. Cordova was also charged with misdemeanor theft.

McCoach said it wasn’t clear why the worker left the booth or why Cordova attacked him, but union officials are now advising all of its members to stay in the booth during their shifts. Workers, she said, are calling for increased safety and security measures following this incident. The union agrees with that sentiment.

"I've been advocating for a dedicated police force," McCoach said. "The employees are enraged. The employees are afraid. The employees don't want to engage with the public because they don't know what they're going to run across because of situations like this."

The victim was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hopsital with minor injuries.

Union members in Brooklyn are rallying around one of their own after a train worker was assaulted there.

Dozens of Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 100 members gathered outside of a Brooklyn criminal court on Monday to demand justice after a train operator was assaulted last year. The rally focused on growing concerns over employee safety for transit workers in New York City.

The suspect in that attack, 27-year-old Jonathan Davalos, faces charges after stabbing a 31-year veteran of the Metropolitan Transit Authority, Myran Pollack, on Oct. 8, 2024. In that incident Davalos and Pollack got into a verbal dispute and Davalos refused to leave the train.

MTA Chief Janno Lieber said Davalos had “a history of attacking transit customers and MTA employees,” and had previously been convicted of assaulting a conductor and slashing a customer.

“This is a guy who not only has a long rap sheet, but has made it a practice of attacking people in the transit system, including our employees,” said Lieber at the time of the attack.

Pollack was rushed to Kings County Hospital with stab wounds in the leg and torso. He was hospitalized and received surgery for his wounds.

Davalos was charged with second-degree attempted murder, first- and second-degree assault, and menacing. His court appearance, where he was considering a plea bargain, prompted the Union members’ rally. TWU Local 100 President John Chiarello said during the rally that transit workers face more safety risks.

“Every single title that I represent, station agents, cleaners, anyone who interfaces with the public is in danger of being attacked,” Chiarello said. “And they are random attacks. Mostly they’re recidivist criminals who go around the subway system. I don’t know if they’re doing it just to go back to jail or if they have mental issues, but whatever the issue is, there’s absolutely no reason they should be attacking my members. It’s totally unprovoked.” 

He joined others in calling on the city and MTA officials to beef up law enforcement into the transit system.

“We’re calling on the mayor and the NYPD to continue the surge,” Chiarello said. “And also [MTA chair and CEO] Janno Lieber, who has the MTA police at his disposal. And he insists not to surge them. He is not using his resources, in our view, as best as he can.”

MTA law enforcement said they are on patrol and in the subways.

“MTA police department officers are stationed at major station hubs and do patrol at stations that are interconnected with the LIRR and Metro-North,” a spokesman for the department said. “While the MTA, we work hand-in-hand with the NYPD transit bureau priorities to keep subways safe, we don’t overstep that jurisdiction of the NYPD.”

Chiarello said he and his members would be pushing for a maximum sentence to send the message that the continued attacks on transit workers would not be tolerated.

Share This Article: