‘We didn’t sign up to die’: US transit workers sound alarm over rising violence

In New York City, at least one worker a week, on average, has reported being assaulted on the job. Photograph: Andrew Kelly/Reuters

Monique Rondon, a bus operator in New York City for 23 years, has been spat on and assaulted several times on the job.

Now transit workers and labor unions across America are sounding the alarm over the trend of violence, assaults, and abuse that workers in the transportation industry in the US have faced throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, a crisis they say will continue to worsen without federal action and implementation of safety protections and rules.