CTA rail workers demanding action on safety front

(The Center Square) – Chicago activist Tio Hardiman is urging CTA rail workers to come together in their battle with management aimed at keeping them safe and protected while on the job.

Over the last two weeks, at least five people have been shot, four of them fatally, on or near the rail system, leaving many workers and riders alike shaken and traumatized by the thought of boarding a CTA train.

“What I would say to the workers on CTA is to organize and schedule a meeting with the president of CTA,” Hardiman told The Center Square. "There should be hundreds of CTA workers to meet with him and just tell them straight forward ‘if you don't get this security thing under control basically we're going to go on strike. Let them know unequivocally, if you don't address this the proper way we need to hire somebody in that position.”

Amalgamated Transit Union Local 308 president/business agent Pennie McCoach adds things have gotten so out of control on the rails that workers are afraid to report for duty, forcing the union to have already broached the idea with management of adding security officers on the system that have the power to make arrests

As the longtime executive director of Violence Interrupters, Hardiman insists his crew is ready for action when it comes to easing tensions.

“I extended another offer to help CTA reduce gun violence and reduce overall violence on their train systems,” he said. “There's a need for an extra level of violence prevention efforts to take place on the CTA. I know for a fact we have a proven model that gets results and we can board them trains and help people feel good about riding those trains.”

In the Blue Line shooting that left four people died, police have charged 30-year-old Rhanni Davis with four counts of first-degree murder, adding at least three of the victims were asleep on the train when he opened fire.

Soon after word of the random attack began to spread, CTA officials revealed the agency is now using Zero Eyes safety technology that can detect guns on train platforms with the technology working by sending an alert to CTA security and CPD via the agency’s existing camera system once a gun is detected in the station.

Presently, the surveillance is only being used in about 250 of the agency’s 33,000 cameras, though authorities have been secretive about which stations as the program remains in the pilot phase.