When the Office is a NYC Traffic Intersection

For Local 1182's Traffic Enforcement Agents, a push or a punch is a real workplace risk. That's why the local pushed for a state law – passed last year – that can make assaulting a traffic agent a felony.

At one of the busiest intersections in a city full of busy streets, on a day made even more chaotic by a truck stuck in the Lincoln Tunnel, Barbara Dease was called every name in the book as she calmly directed rush-hour traffic headed to and past the tunnel.

It was an ordinary afternoon at New York's 41st Street and 10th Avenue, where Traffic Enforcement Agent (TEA) Dease has managed the flow of motorists for four years — ordinary until one angry driver returned 20 minutes later and shoved her to the ground.

"He walks up to me and says, 'I want your badge number,' and then says, 'You don't remember me, do you?'" Dease said. With so many people shouting at her, berating her and demeaning her work every day, at first he was just one more face in a very big crowd.

Then it came to her: this was the man who screamed obscenities when she wouldn't let him squeeze into a tiny hole in traffic she kept open for emergencies. "You're the one who flipped his cigarette at me," Dease said. "I should have burned you," he retorted. Then he pushed her and she fell backward.

For Dease and 2,800 other CWA Local 1182 members who direct traffic and enforce parking laws in New York City, violence on the job isn't an abstract fear.

"We had a person who was assaulted with a bat. It punctured his head," Local 1182 President James Huntley said. "One of our members was hit by a car deliberately while directing traffic. We've had people sic dogs on us. We've been kicked. We've been spit on."

Huntley, who started as a traffic enforcement officer in 1982, has taken a carrot-and-stick approach to protect his members and build respect for their jobs: a positive public relations campaign that puts a real, human face on agents, and a multi-year lobbying and mobilization campaign that resulted in the 2008 state law that can lead to felony prosecution for assaults on traffic enforcement officers.

Local 1182 spent 12 years lobbying for the law that can elevate an assault on a TEA from a misdemeanor to a felony. The union ultimately won support from police and politicians, led by Mayor Bloomberg. The Brooklyn district attorney has created a special unit to enforce the law and prosecute offenders.

"One of the reasons it took so long to get this law is that TEAs were thought of as 'meter maids,'" Huntley said. "In the 1960s, the first agents were women, and that's what they were called. The name stuck. They were seen as doing clerical work that didn't require protection."

TEA Samuel Surles is proud that his union fought for a new law that helps protect him and his colleagues from hot-tempered motorists who have been known to throw a punch.

"It gives me a real sense of calmness, a peace of mind to know that justice is going to be served," said Surles, 21, a member of CWA Local 1182. "Maybe the guy who punched me will think twice next time if he knows he could spend two to seven years in jail for it." A motorist parked illegally at a bus stop hit Surles in the face last April; the driver took off before police arrived.

The new law applies to the 2,800 unarmed TEAs. Annually about 15 percent of the members are victimized on the job, Huntley said.

The local's public relations campaign is ongoing throughout the city, with flyers, newspaper and 30-second movie theater ads publicizing the law while helping to humanize the uniformed agents in the lime-green vests. The union wants people to understand that its members are striving to be fair, polite and friendly in a high-stress job — one that the city desperately needs to avoid utter chaos.

Huntley said he's gotten "great feedback" from members about the campaign. The city's attitude toward TEAs seems to be improving, and the local's support and outreach to members are building morale and professionalism — and that in turn helps keep them safe.

The local represents another 175 members who enforce sanitation laws, and so far the new law doesn't extend to them. "We're working on that," Huntley said. "They confront people about garbage that isn't cleaned up and political signs hung where they're not supposed to be. They deserve the same protection as our TEAs."

First Photo Caption:At a news conference last year, Local 1182 announces passage of a New York State law to bring felony charges against people who assault traffic enforcement agents. Local Presdient James Huntley is pictured, center, with campaign supporters.

Second Photo Caption:TEA Samuel Surles a member of CWA Local 1182, directs vehicles between the Plaza Hotel and Central Park in New York City.