NYC NOW - October 26, 2023: Midday News

Episode Date: October 26, 2023

The NYPD is on high alert as police in Maine look for a mass shooter suspected of killing at least eighteen people in Lewiston, although officials say there is no specific threat to New York City. Also, New York City is scaling up a program to give survivors of domestic violence emergency grants of about 1,200 dollars to meet immediate housing needs. Finally, New York City’s Council on Sanitation and Solid Waste Management held a hearing yesterday to address safety and protections for sanitation workers after more than 750 workers were injured within the last year. Council Member Sandy Nurse, the chair of that committee, joins WNYC's Sean Carlson discuss the issue.

Welcome to NYC now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Thursday, October 26th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. The NYPD is on high alert as police in Maine. Look for a mass shooter suspect of killing at least 18 people in Lewiston. As you've been hearing, the suspect has been identified as Robert Card. Lewiston is five hours away from the city by car.

NYPD officials say there is no specific threat to New York City, but the NYPD is deploying anti-security at bridges and other entry points to the city. The MTA also send cars photo and vehicle information to every officer across the transit system. Police say this is out of an abundance of caution and that they don't suspect Carr has any political or ideological motivations. New York City is scaling up a program to give survivors of domestic violence emergency grants of about $1,200 to meet immediate housing needs. Dona reached Espinall is a survivor who got a grant when the program was piloted back in 2020. As a survivor, I felt trapped with my abuser living in the same household.

The cost of moving and storage fees were staggering. My credit was ruined due to leasing a car for my abuser. Aspinall says the grant helped her rebuild her life. City officials say they're still building a more than $1 million program, but advocates and city council members say the Adams administration needs to increase funding to meet the growing demand. 71 and sunny now, mostly sunny today in a high of 75, and then tonight down to 60, Friday 75 once again, warmer on Saturday up near 80,

with shower chances and 63. on Sunday. I'm Sean Carlson for WNYC. Working for New York City Sanitation Department is not just a dirty job, it's a dangerous one. More than 750 sanitation workers were injured at work in the last year. And according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, trash and recycling collectors died on the job more frequently than all but seven other types of occupations. Now, the most common cause of death is related to the workers' own truck, either falling off of it or the truck rolling over. Being hit by another vehicle is also another common risk.

New York City's Council on Sanitation and Solid Waste Management held a hearing yesterday about safety and protections for sanitation workers. So joining us now as Councilmember Sandy Nurse, the chair of that committee, to talk more on the topic. Hey, Councilmember, what was your biggest takeaway from the hearing and what sorts of challenges have you heard from sanitation workers and what they want to see? Well, the biggest takeaway is that our sanitation workers are still extremely unsafe. New York City has thousands of public and private sanitation workers that collect waste and process it for export every single day. And our private sanitation workers, they collect commercial waste, face really the most grueling conditions. Collection workers have some of the highest fatality rates of all occupations. New York remains in the top five states with the most sanitation

related fatalities. So what we heard yesterday is what really we've heard over the years about the dangers these workers continue to face. They're being paid cash wages. Some are hired as day laborers and brought on the job, handed a clipboard, handed keys. We heard yesterday about workers who on the back of trucks in all black, no reflective gear in sneakers, no PPE. This is extremely dangerous not only to the workers,

but to pedestrians. And many pedestrians have been killed or seriously injured over the years by waste trucks. So it's alarming that we're still in this position. Now, you mentioned that New York has higher rates of sanitation workers being injured or killed on the job than other places. What is more challenging in New York City that makes it more dangerous? The volume. The number of stops trucks have to make the competition. So right now, there are hundreds of carters that collect from the same city blocks. You know, you can have New 70 carters collecting from one single block.

they're all starting from you know some will start from coney island and have to make up their last stop in the bronx and they're under the clock to get their route complete and so it creates a lot of pressure and a lot of competition there's density i mean we're talking about millions and millions of pounds of trash every day being moved throughout the city it's and the private sanitation workers are doing this at night so there's a lot of competing factors going on and in fact that's why the council passed local law 199 to create a commercial waste zone system to change that that would create more protections for these workers and stronger requirements for safety training by carters in order to do business in the city. Yeah. So you mentioned that legislation, which of course we have talked about on this station in the past as it's made its way through the process. What are the legislation are you considering to protect workers?

Well, that's why we wanted to hear from them. you know, right now, this, the biggest, strongest piece of legislation we have was already passed. It was past years ago before this council, before I was the chair of sanitation. Now we needed to be implemented. The Department of Sanitation has spent a year basically fielding bids from different private carters who are now going to be awarded contracts to operate in many zones in the city. And in order to receive one of those, very lucrative contracts, you have to have a strong record of worker protection, of providing regular safety training on top of a number of other factors. So you have to have a safe fleet.

You have to have safe facilities. There's a number of requirements. And so this is the solution. We already passed it. And we're now in the process of implementation, which we've had many hearings on over the last two years. And so yesterday was really to once again re-centered. the front line of this effort, which is the sanitation workers who are really out there every single night at risk. DSNY reported that a large amount of worker injuries were from crews being splashed by unknown substances in the trash they're hauling. What kinds of dangerous chemicals are New Yorkers throwing out that's hurting the sanitation

workers? Well, New Yorkers are throwing out all sorts of things, unfortunately. Sure. And because these sanitation workers, both the public and the private sanitation workforce, picks these bags up, throws them in the trash. Sometimes they rip. You might get toxic chemicals, cleaning chemicals. Another seriously dangerous thing New Yorkers are throwing out are lithium ion batteries,

rechargeable lithium ion batteries. They cause fires in sanitation trucks. They cause fires in actually the transfer facilities where waste gets dumped. and prepared for export. And so needles, glass, broken glass, I mean, when you're putting things in the trash bag, just remember that another human being has to pick that up and throw it into a truck. And so they're exposed to a lot of things. This is why they need companies that provide proper protection equipment, gloves, boots, reflective gear to make sure they have the trucks that are safe, that they have the right guard whales to protect them.

A lot of what they testified yesterday was that when they're on their routes, e-bikes or the e-bike workers are, there's a lot going on on the street. And they've had run-ins with folks who are zooming down the streets. So there's an ever-evolving set of things happening on our streets that these workers are having to engage with. That's Councilmember Sandy Nurse, the chair of the Council's Committee on Sanitation and Solid Waste Management. Council member, thanks so much for joining us. Thank you for covering this. Thanks for listening.

This is NYC now from WNYC. Be sure to catch us every weekday, three times a day, for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives. And subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back this evening.