Vote YES For These Grievances on June 10, 2025

UPDATE (6/10/2024): All of my grievances lost approval by the membership. 0425-50 should have never been brought to the membership because it was voted by the Executive Board for arbitration in April. Somehow it changed from 0325-26. The confusion regarding all of this seems highly suspicious. It is obvious that this was out of order and a personal bureaucratic assault by VP Mark Weems and Attorney Tanay.

On June 1st, our union presidents, our union staff attorney and their loyalists showed their true allegiance to protecting CTA mismanagement from having to pay for violating numerous Contract clauses and stealing wages. All 14 of my grievances were destroyed with viciousness and gross prejudice. The leader of the attack was none other than the Shadow President, Brother Mark Weems.

I will not belabor the merits of my grievances, other than you should read them for yourself and go to the June 10 Membership Meeting at 6:30 pm. It's at 11204 S. Western. Then vote YES or NO based on what you read now. 

I cannot attend. I will be I work at the time of the meeting. So I need your support while I am not there. 

VP Mark Weems will only give you a totally biased summary of his own and have you thinking I am some kind of union-busting CTA mole. Read the grievances for yourselves! 

Do not trust this man—or any union official's opinions for that matter. Brother Mark is especially dangerous because he is a loyal CTA business unionist. He is also vehemently anti-strike, anti-sick leave and anti-democracy! Trust your own intelligence! 

I am recommending that you vote YES on these grievances that I wrote:

0223-03: Reimbursement for court hearing from when a CTA General Manager called police on me for being in breakroom while on union payroll. This was the culmination of an ULP charge that you can read about here.

 

0425-20: Lobby Day. The CTA must pay the union for all expenses used for the Springfield trips. Read more here. 

 

0425-50: Truck Shop Overhaul: The CTA needs to pay us the Machinist rate for "overhaul" work. Read more here. VP Weems kept comparing this to the Bombardier grievance and that I was helping the CTA take away work. Then he admitted that one word "cease and desist" could be used to harm us. When I said he should tell me to correct it, he insisted that I should respect him. This traitor has been disrespecting the members choice of me as an official from before I was sworn in. He thinks our fight as a union is about personal beefs. No, it's about the membership. The CTA must be punished by paying ATU members a higher rate for work we do not do. It is dangerous work too!

 

0425-52: The CTA cannot expel union officials from CTA property when they are approved to be there in writing from the union president. I provided a Contract article and the court order from a labor law judge for a case I filed that says they cannot do it—yet they continue to do it. Other officers mocked this grievance too because they said they are never kicked out of facilities—that is because most of them do not help members and fight for them. I actually help members write grievances—and encourage it. If we let the CTA get away with this, we are hurting our chances of becoming a real union.

 

0525-46: Resetting rail car hydraulic lift breaker switches. Management has been ordering Kimball Shop Repairers to reset tripped breaker switches on a regular basis. Tripped breakers are a warning about electrical faults which could lead to death and destruction of equipment. This is the domain of union electricians. Those at Howard and 98th Shops—such as myself—understand and respect the union jurisdiction of IBEW because we know electricians cannot troubleshoot faults if we reset breaker switches. This grievance punishes CTA mismanagement by making them pay ATU members for electrician work at the higher electrician rate. Why our union presidents fight it is nothing short of treason. 

 

1124-09: Shop Leader and Technician Forcing must stop! This is an extremely important grievance because it is about bald-faced union busting of Rail Car Repairers. The CTA allowed Leaders to rescind their qualification without punishment of termination in the past. The Leader and Tech positions are not required for being a Rail Car Repairer (unlike Truck Shop, Carbody, Controls and HVAC qualifications). The CTA must pay more and hire more. Not ruin the lives of lower seniority workers who want to expand their skills in the Leader and Technician qualifications.  

 

1224-34: Reimburse workers for Re-Pick. Due to last-minute mismanagement, the CTA inconvenienced workers in low seniority to pick for a third time. This interrupted sleep schedules, cost ATU Local 308 more money and was an insult to the Contract. VP Mark Weems and President Pennie's argument is that repicks are normal. But they are preventable and are causing unnecessary delays. This is another form of union busting that we must stop!

 

1124-05: PIU lens replacement. Similar to the Truck Shop Overhaul above (0425-50), VP Mark Weems and his rubber stamp Executive Bored claimed this was giving up work. The CTA fabricated a new bulletin—as shown—to back up their new practice of giving us union electrician work. The CTA must be punished by paying us the electrician rate. We cannot allow the CTA to scab us against electricians.

 

0425-51: Second Chance "Apprentice" Full Grievance Rights. The Second Chancers—who are union members—are being denied the right to grieve anything but termination and lost wages. Vice President Mark Weems boldly declared he was the author of the ambiguous terms which robs them of their rights as guaranteed by our union bylaws.