We, The People, Must Change The CTA

I am the most hated union representative at the CTA because I tell the raw, uncensored Truth about the abuse of men and women who maintain and operate the system.

CTA mismanagement says that I am the problem here. They hope that I will resign or "disappear." So far, it's not working out they way they planned because I have no fear of any man but Allah (God). 

When I work as a union representative, I defend His people—my coworkers. 

Not a single mismanager can claim to have good relationships with me. When I walk in to a facility, they become filled with anxiety and hate. They know I am not like the other union reps and be compromised. 

Both the CTA mismanagement, my own union president and her boot-licking loyalists work day and night to silence me and others who speak up. 

If the CTA was a country, it would be condemned by the United Nations for multiple human rights violations and terrorism against its civilians—the employees and riders. 

There are CTA workers that are compensated so poorly that some are homeless and/or suffering from chronic illness because they are punished when they get sick and cannot afford the outrageous health insurance costs. It is common for a poor CTA worker to die at work. Those fortunate to make it to retirement, rarely survive more than a year or two.


Most of the homeless or poverty-stricken CTA workers are the Customer Service Assistants, Flagmen and Second Chance "Apprentices." These slave wage positions are filled almost exclusively by Black and Latino men and women who are drowning under the burden of generational poverty and disenfranchisement. 

The CTA of 30 years ago used to be path out of poverty for our communities. Now it is a pipeline to poverty and a link in the chain of the prison industrial complex—thanks to the exploitative Second Chance Program. 


The CTA of today is a spiritual killing field of repression and union-busting. 


We don't need a KKK in white hoods to keep us down anymore. We have KKK in dark skin, fancy shoes and skinny jeans to do it. Mismanagers openly call us “trash” and say we should be grateful for the filthy and deadly working conditions. They threaten workers with punishment if they complain to me or file grievances.

In rare cases they are threatened with death. 


The CTA will continue to fail the people of our city as long as poverty and punishment of the employees continues unabated. 


The workers and riders must take control of the CTA. We must run it. Not the politicians and their benefactors. Only then will we have a chance to turn it around.