Transport Workers Solidarity Committee

A Thriving Industry Built on Low-Compensated Temp Workers In Chicago-The Union Free Environment

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/27/us/27cncdryport.html?_r=2&emc=tnt&tntemail0=y

August 26, 2010
A Thriving Industry Built on Low-Compensated Temp Workers
By KARI LYDERSEN
Tory Moore worked at the same packaged-food warehouse in Kankakee for six years, but he was denied a loan and apartment rentals after being told he did not have a real job.

Mr. Moore, 37, was a “perma-temp,” one of thousands of workers in the Chicago area’s massive warehouse complexes who are laid off and rehired every few months by temporary-staffing agencies.

He said he never received paid vacation days, holidays, sick days or affordable insurance. He was fired in December, he said, for rallying other workers to demand better conditions.

“I’m someone who loves to work hard,” he said, “but you want the company to make you feel appreciated.”

The Chicago area is widely described as the country’s largest inland “dry port,” where the nation’s six major railroads converge with packed shipping containers from China and other far-flung locations. The containers are moved from train to truck at sprawling intermodal facilities, then hauled to hundreds of warehouses where they are unloaded by hand so the goods can be distributed to retail stores across the country. In early August, a new $2 billion intermodal facility was opened in Joliet, where Union Pacific trains bring goods from Western seaports and factories.

Privatize Public Transit? The Lessons In Chicago
http://www.chicagoreader.com/gyrobase/chicago-privatization-public-transportation-cta-el/Content?oid=1955350&showFullText=true
June 10, 2010NEWS & COMMENTARY » POLITICS

Privatize Public Transit?
Chicago's tried it before. Here's how that went.
By Robert Loerzel

RICK FROBERG

In December 1898, some Chicagoans began wearing twine—twisted into the shape of a hangman's noose—in their buttonholes. It was their way of sending a message to the City Council about an upcoming vote. "I will not be surprised to see some hanging done in the streets of Chicago," said Mayor Carter H. Harrison II, sizing up the city's mood.

For years, citizens had been complaining about shoddy service on Chicago's privately owned streetcars. They'd fumed at corrupt businessmen who got rich by cramming passengers onto those streetcars. Now aldermen were talking about giving even more power to the street railways—Chicago's "traction companies," in the idiom of the day. If this vote went through, those companies would control the streetcars for another 50 years.

"The city seethed with excitement," Lloyd Wendt and Herman Kogan wrote in their 1943 book, Lords of the Levee. "Aldermen received letters threatening the kidnapping of their children and wives and the dynamiting of their homes."

IBT Pres Hoffa Jr. removes Richard Berg, Chicago Local 743 Teamster President, from office
http://www.fightbacknews.org/2010/5/10/hoffa-removes-richard-berg-local-743-teamster-president-office?utm_source=Fight Back! News
Hoffa removes Richard Berg, Local 743 Teamster President, from office
Members fighting mad
By Staff | May 9, 2010
Read more articles in Teamsters
Chicago, IL - Fight Back! learned May 9 that Jimmy Hoffa, Jr., at a meeting in Las Vegas, has joined with the corrupt Teamsters officials in Chicago to remove President Richard Berg and Secretary Treasurer Gina Alvarez from office in Local 743. Berg and Alvarez are rank-and-file reformers who fought for years against the gangsters who ran their union while Hoffa and officers of the Joint Council in Chicago turned a blind eye to the corruption in the local.

While the official decision has yet to be received, Berg confirmed that he has been notified. The decision rests upon a charge brought against Berg and Alvarez by other officers in 743 who had turned against the reform agenda.

The factual basis of the charge is that Berg had let go a former staff member who was no longer able to perform his duties. A severance was agreed upon, which the local executive board was informed of and to which they assented. Six months later, the same board members cooked up a scheme with the top Teamster old guard in Chicago. These ex-reformers knew the Joint Council was dominated by officials who were hostile to Berg and Alvarez’ agenda - reviving a fighting union with power in the hands of the members. The sole charge upon which the two are being removed was Berg’s failure to get an official vote from the board.

Give Us Back Our Public Transit! Chicago ATU Local 241 Officials Interviewed By LaborBeat
Give Us Back Our Public Transit!
http://www.laborbeat.org/lb/index.html

to watch video, click here:
http://blip.tv/file/3437161

The leadership of Chicago's union of CTA and PACE drivers and workers, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 241, engage in a roundtable discussion with Labor Beat host Wayne Heimbach on April 2, 2010. The topic: the current situation with management pressing for contract concessions while trying to get transit riders to blame the union for CTA service cuts. Included are: Darrell Jefferson, President-Business Agent; Michael Simmons, Recording Secretary; Dan Hrycyk; Financial Secretary; Carlos J. Acevedo/ Maintenance ABA.

President Jefferson pointed out that "The current administration at CTA is trying to bust our union and we're trying to fight to hold on to it. In the early 1980s the Reagan administration had cut off all federal funding to cities with over 200,000, and when the CTA could not stay afloat with state funds, the union came in and bailed them out." This was done by the union dipping into its own pension fund. "They got used to coming back and coming back, and sooner or later, enough is enough," said Carlos Acevedo. "We just can't give any more."

4/2/2010 Chicago ATU 241 Live Internet Stream With Questions
presents

Give Us Back Our Public Transit!

A live 30-minute video stream, followed by a live
Internet Q & A with ATU Local 241 representatives.

Friday, April 2, 2010 - 7:30 pm

Live stream at: http://evanstononline.com/page/ecmc-labor-beat
If you want to submit questions, click on "Chat" button and use "live stream" chat.

With guests from Amalgamated Transit Union Local 241,
Chicago's union of CTA and PACE drivers and workers:

Darrell Jefferson
President-Business Agent
Michael Simmons
Recording Secretary
Dan Hrycyk
Financial Secretary
Carlos J. Acevedo
Maintenance ABA

(This show will be cablecast at a later date on Chicago and Evanston cable-tv.
Watch for announcement.)

Produced by Labor Beat. Labor Beat is a CAN TV Community Partner. Labor Beat is a
non-profit 501(c)(3) member of IBEW 1220. Views are those of the producer Labor Beat.
For info: mail@laborbeat.org, www.laborbeat.org. 312-226-3330. For other Labor Beat
videos, visit Google Video, YouTube, or blip.tv and search "Labor Beat".

Unions rally to support Chicago CTA workers

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=7354358
Unions rally to support CTA workers
Saturday, March 27, 2010

March 27, 2010 (CHICAGO) -- Labor leaders from around the country gathered in Chicago Saturday for a rally against CTA cutbacks.

The president of the Amalgamated Transit Union and the heads of local unions from several cities joined reverend Jesse Jackson at Rainbow PUSH headquarters.

Last month, the CTA reduced service and laid off 1,100 workers to plug a $95.6 million dollar hole in its budget.

The ATU is calling for a permanent funding solution to avert further cuts and layoffs.

"We feel now we have to take it to the streets...to make our voices heard," said Javier Perez, Jr. ATU International vice president.

The ATU is urging Congress to pass a proposal that would give cities like Chicago more flexibility in using federal transit funds to operate mass transit systems.

Chicago CTA Bosses calls ATU 308 union proposals too costly
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-cta-18-20100217,0,4834433.story

CTA calls union proposals too costly
2 sides appear to be drifting further apart in effort to restore service, jobs

By Jon Hilkevitch, TRIBUNE REPORTER
6:49 p.m. CST, February 17, 2010

Cost savings proposed by Chicago Transit Authority labor unions to help reduce a large budget deficit would actually cost the transit agency an additional $78 million, the CTA board chairman said Wednesday.

The union proposals would cost the CTA more money by bringing back conductors on trains, replacing some CTA managers with union employees and using union labor for some snow-removal work that the CTA now contracts out, board Chairman Terry Peterson said.

The CTA's negative assessment of the union plan to purportedly reduce spending by $90.6 million was offered at the end of a day marked by dueling news conferences held by the union and by management over how to restore bus and rail service that was cut Feb. 7, along with reversing about 1,100 CTA employee layoffs.

The gulf separating the two sides appears to be widening, and the public-relations tactics are growing increasing nasty.

Sick Call: Chicago ATU 241 Union Worker Tries to Incite Mass Call Off "We will not tolerate troublemakers.” Says Union President

http://www.nbcchicago.com/traffic/transit/Sick-Call-83798127.html

Sick Call: Union Worker Tries to Incite Mass Call Off
119 bus routes and seven El lines are running less frequently already
By KIM VATIS
Updated 8:14 PM CST, Tue, Feb 9, 2010

As the CTA service cuts get a trial by fire during the first weekday commute, at least one worker is trying to make things worse, officials say.
A CTA union member this morning showed up to a garage where bus drivers were coming to work and started handing out flyers imploring workers to call in sick to work.
"We’re going to look into the allegations," said CTA President Richard Rodriguez. "We will not tolerate troublemakers.”
CTA officials are trying to determine if it was a union steward that was causing the trouble.

Chicago's Pantsless CTA Ride

CTA Prez: Cuts Have Begun

CTA, Unions Point Fingers at Each Other
It shouldn’t be hard to find the perpetrator, who also left flyers at another garage. She posted her name on the leaflets.
The worker probably didn’t need to exacerbate the problems; the unions and the CTA are already at odds and riders are feeling the pinch already.

Chicago CTA ATU 241 plans slowdown if not given fair negotiation “They’re working us like a machine,”

http://www.suntimes.com/news/transportation/2046755,cta-chicago-union-jesse-jackson-021310.article

CTA unions plan slowdown if not given fair negotiation
Comments

February 13, 2010
BY MARY WISNIEWSKI Staff Reporter
Union representatives for CTA bus workers and the Rev. Jesse Jackson say they want to meet with CTA management on Wednesday, and plan a slowdown if they don’t get a fair negotiation.

“There needs to be a fair negotiation, or there will be a slow road or no road,” Jackson said at a news conference Saturday at Operation PUSH’s South Side headquarters. He was surrounded by about 40 bus drivers, including some who had lost their jobs last week.

Darrell Jefferson, president of Amalgamated Transit Union 241, said a “slowdown” would mean strict adherence to the rules, i.e., no driving a bus more than 35 mph, and no taking off from a bus stop before a passenger is seated or at least hanging onto a strap. Jefferson said the CTA has been pushing drivers to go faster than the rules allow, in order to meet schedules.

CTA spokeswoman Noelle Gaffney said following the rules is not a problem. But any worker participating in an illegal work action will be disciplined, which could mean getting fired, Gaffney said.

http://www.transitchicago.com/assets/1/brochures/10kd04_Service_Change_Brochure_FINAL_Web.pdf

This brochure provides an overview of the
reductions along with the changes in hours and
frequency of service. They were designed to retain
as much service as possible, while still reducing
costs and maximizing efficiencies. The only
routes eliminated are nine express routes that
have corresponding local service. Although all
parts of the region that have service currently will
continue to have it, there will be shorter hours on
41 routes and less frequent service on 119 routes.
Unfortunately, most customers will experience
more crowded conditions and longer wait times
between buses and trains.
We greatly regret the difficulty these service
reductions will cause for our riders and the
hardship the corresponding layoffs will cause
for more than 1,000 employees and their families.
However, until the economy rebounds and tax
revenues begin to grow, we must reduce our
operating costs.
We are hopeful that as the economy improves, so
will our revenues so that we may begin to restore
service levels. Public transit is an essential regional
resource. We will continue to work diligently with