During the COVID-19 pandemic, New York City (NYC) public transportation has been an essential service to assure that other essential workers can get to their jobs. Many of the predominantly racial and ethnic minority transit workers have been exposed to risks at both work and at home, as many workers also reside in high prevalence communities. The pandemic thrust transit workers into the role of frontline workers, even though they lacked the training, experience, supplies, equipment, and supervision typically provided for traditional frontline workers (i.e., health care and first responders).
This study, conducted in partnership with the Transport Workers Union (TWU), Local 100, is designed to: (1) evaluate the cumulative impact of multi- level interventions to date on current worker health and resilience; (2) develop and assess a worker-driven model of crisis management to facilitate worker resilience as the pandemic and policy responses evolve (e.g., restore lock-down with resurgence; deployment of vaccine); and (3) disseminate findings to provide input into policy changes and operations to protect non-healthcare essential workers during pandemic events with a focus to decrease health disparities in high-risk populations.
Read more: NYC Transit Workers and COVID-19: Impact of Multilevel Interventions.