Union trashes subway-cleaner cuts

The city’s transit union filed a grievance against the MTA, warning that eliminating subway-station night-shift cleaners will leave workers and the public in danger. “It’s a safety hazard,” said Derick Echevarria, the Transport Workers Union vice president for stations. “They tell us, ‘You are the eyes and ears of the stations,’ but how can we be the eyes and ears if we aren’t there?” Station cleaners on the 9 p.m.-5 a.m. shift have already been removed from R-line stations, the union claims — and the MTA intends to do away with night tours on five more lines in January and the entire system by mid-2018.

The moves come as garbage-fueled track fires continue to plague the system, causing delays.

The MTA wants to replace overnight station cleaners with a handful of roving workers responsible only for emergency jobs, Echevarria added.

The agency has not responded to the union’s grievance, which was filed two weeks ago, Echevarria said.

The agency did say in a statement, “The MTA . . . is actually adding staff to ramp up cleaning, and focusing schedules to right after the rush hours to successfully keep trash from piling up and causing fires and delay.”

MTA boss Joe Lhota said Tuesday, “No cleaning crews have been eliminated and there has been no reduction in overnight cleaners.”