Severe Workforce Shortage or Severe Mismanagement?

As we all know, the Chicago Transit Authority—like many other transportation companies—are bemoaning staff shortages. It is so bad, that the CTA has made a “retention incentive” with our union leadership to bypass Contractual wage progression and add some tiny cash bonuses to recruit and retain our anemic workforce. 

Or is it really not so bad?

Is this shortage and “retention incentive” part of a collaboration with ATU leadership to redirect funds and keep an increasingly dissatisfied workforce from organizing mass collective action? 

As some riders have told my coworkers: “You all should strike.” Even they clearly see that the blatant disrespect from CTA management—especially since the first wave of the Pandemic—is beyond the pale. 

I humbly suggest that the CTA management is probably not concerned at all with the very real workforce shortages—nor the passengers who are complaining about lackluster service. 

“How so?” you may ask. 

As an ATU Local 308 union steward and delegate who many members respect more than some of our own full-time officers, I am privy to acts of gross mismanagement of which the public—and some coworkers—will never know. 

Look for yourself at three jaw-dropping contradictions regarding this latest cry by CTA management:

1. On December 30th, 2022 they will fire a whole bunch of loyal, hard-working employees who were recruited through the “Second Chance Program.” This is a program that the CTA management habitually abuses—through violating Attachment O of our Collective Bargaining Agreement—in order to make members in our union do dangerous work for poverty wages, 40 hour weeks and almost-zero benefits. They use fear and take advantage of people who have felonies and want to get their lives together. 

Just imagine working one, two, three or more years, being turned down after applying for multiple Full Time CTA jobs, enduring chemical burns, fed lies that you will “turned over” to Full Time Permanent status, suffering assaults from deranged passengers and humiliation by management. A few have even been threatened with assault and MURDER by a manager (who still works here)! 

Then, right before Christmas, you receive this cynical email message from your employer:

The CTA sends these out once or twice a year to my poor coworkers. It is utterly shameful. Come and party on December 9th for an “Exit Interview,” so we fire you on December 30th.

That is not “appreciation.” That is abuse! That is the stuff of slavemakers and selfish sweatshop bosses we read about in other countries and history books!

The Second Chancers are some of the most hardest working, experienced and dedicated people I have ever met. They have literally been through hell and back, paid their “dues” for mistakes—or false accusations—but they don’t deserve a Full Time Job at a company desperate for workers? 

The CTA works them just like Full-Timers for years, only to be thrown out like trash?

Something ain’t right with this picture!

The second gross contradiction is the mass accumulation of grievances for ATU Local 241 members. I am not a member of that Local. But I work closely with many of them through the Chicago Transit Justice Coalition and a member of the same union. They are bus workers. I am a rail worker. We have the same Collective Bargaining Agreement and work at the same company. 

I lost count of how many good, hardworking people the has CTA fired—especially in Local 241. However, I know all of them have one thing in common: The president of Local 241 does not like the people they fire! 

He is the most insecure, cruel and pro-management union officer I have ever known. He claims to be anointed by the blood of Jesus Christ, that God will punish his critics and prides himself on calling managers and police on members who challenge his ideas. 

However, his fatal flaw is a golden goose for a greedy employer that will cut costs by any means—even if it destroys lives, perpetuates poverty, leads to employee injury and turns passengers away from using our trains and buses. 

With assistance from his friends in CTA management, he sits on about TWO THOUSAND outstanding grievances! Many of these are unjust firings of his critics—along with trifling writeups that will lead to more firings. Local 241 Secretary-Treasurer candidate, Nicole Williams exposes his racket in this recent video. 

So if the CTA truly has a manpower/workforce/staffing deficit, then why keep all these experienced, dedicated people out for months and years? Some have been out so long, they already relocated, retired or died!

The third contradiction is the Covid-19 vaccine mandate. As I write this article, the CTA management is still firing coworkers who are not fully vaccinated. Thanks to our union presidents—specifically Eric Dixon and Keith Hill—non-fully vaccinated employees had no option for weekly testing. They either comply or go bye-bye. Other ATU Local unions won testing requirements. Why could we not do it? They never even consulted with us on what we wanted. They just gave the decision up to a “neutral” arbitrator. 

So we have more dedicated, hard-working employees thrown out on the street—all while the CTA management essentially blames people for being lazy or obstinate rule-breakers. 

Does this make sense to you?

However, what does make sense is that all of it saves money, improves bond ratings and makes politicians look good to their billionaire, war-mongering, police-state benefactors. 

Privatization arrived on its horse when Presidents Dixon and Hill shoved an obscure article in our Collective Bargaining Agreement called “Microtransit.” Click the picture to enlarge it.

No one wins this battle except the greedy slobs. CTA workers lose. CTA riders lose. That is, until the CTA workers and riders join forces to fight for common interests. 

Poverty is at the root of crime in our city and the CTA system. Eliminating it will take cross-industry, cross-union and cross-community, grass roots organizing for collective action. However, for us at the CTA, it starts at home. 

 

That is, Full Time jobs for ALL CTA employees, reinstatement of ALL fired workers and Two-Person Crews. 

Over the next year, CTA workers and riders will have many opportunities to build a united front for poverty elimination and service improvement. It is up to us. Not the CTA overlords, the elected union bosses, the politicians, the lawyers or the corporations and their forked-tongue advocates. 

Severe action by us is the only remedy to the severe shortages and mismanagement that plague the second largest public transportation company in the United States. 

 

Let's build for it with an off-duty protest in front of CTA Headquarters on December 9th between 8 and 8:30 am. That is outside of 567 W. Lake Street. There, we will tell our Second Chance coworkers that we support them—and demand that the CTA respect all workers and make sure we have Full-Time Jobs For All and Two-Person Crews.