Union workers at a Manhattan bus depot were fighting with management on Wednesday over whether or not to leave the flag at half-staff in honor of fallen FDNY Battalion Chief Michael Fahy.
Workers at the MTA Kingsbridge Bus Depot on Tenth Avenue in Inwood lowered the U.S. flag but were apparently ordered to put it back up, being told only Gov. Andrew Cuomo can control the flags at MTA facilities, a TWU Local 100 spokesman said.
Management workers raised the flag back up, but plant and equipment workers lowered it back down again shortly after.
An MTA spokesman said there was a miscommunication and all flags at MTA facilities will being flown at half-staff until further notice.
“This incident was the result of the disrespectful decisions of brainless bureaucrats at NYC Transit, but when workers stand shoulder to shoulder we win,” TWU Local 100 President John Samuelsen said in a statement.
On Tuesday, Mayor Bill de Blasio ordered all flags to fly at half-staff in the city in memory of Fahy until he is laid to rest.
Fahy, 44, was directing operations at a house in the Bronx when there was an explosion and he was fatally hit by part of the roof, officials have said. A second-generation firefighter, Fahy had been with the department for 17 years and was called a rising star.
Union workers in other positions, including those at the Dallas Fort Worth Airport and workers in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, also lowered their flags in solidarity, the TWU Local 100 spokesman said.
