Public Transit Worker Jobs Saved…And Some Political Patronage Too

This guest blog article is by Brother Christopher Campisi, Local 308 Union Steward and Rail Car Repairer. At the time of this writing, he is running for Local 308 Vehicle Maintenance Executive Board Member.  

 

The phrase laws are like sausages (John Godfrey Saxe) means: Nobody wants to see the disgusting process. They only the finished product on their plate. 

Because the struggle to pass a Transportation Bill was energized by threats of pink slips, route cuts, and “Public Transportation Armageddon,” we may have lost sight of the prize. 

We are justifiably focused on the final revenue sources, forgetful of who fought the hardest for funding, and more forgetful of who did and will continue to delay, destroy, and defund public transportation. But we must keep our eyes on the prize: World Class Public Transportation in the State of Illinois.

The new bill revenue sources

    •    Existing motor fuel tax will be directed to transit operations.
    •    Existing interest earned off the States road fund.
    •    Chicago area sales tax by .25%.
    •    Increasing tolls by 45 cents for passenger cars and 30% for other vehicles. 

The following is my opinion only (it was formed by watching the “sausage" being made):

A politician will feel pressure when the voters put pressure on them in large groups. I have to commend the energy and resources of both Amalgamated Transit Union Local 241 and Local 308 for keeping that pressure on the lawmakers in the many trips to Springfield. Also, credit goes to the CTA riders that they educated on the funding issue. The contributions of organizations such as Better Streets Chicago, CDSA's Fix The CTA Campaign, The People's Lobby, Active Transportation Alliance, Streetsblog Chicago and others were also important drivers for support of our jobs and system.

As members of those unions, we deserve thanks for not only our participation, but in funding our locals to take a stance. Five years ago Chicago-area State Representatives Eva-Dina Delgado and Kam Buckner started this fight for funding (plus a big push to reform the boards of the RTA, CTA, Metra, and PACE).

Why should we reform the boards? 

In my opinion, the riders and workers need a vote on these boards. For f#$ks sake, with the replacement of the RTA with the NITA, we still have enough board members to operate a small bus or rail line! Workers, and riders voices need to be heard. Workers and riders need a vote too. 

Workers and Riders are the only ones with enough knowledge to truly fix the CTA. If we wait for it, instead of being a part of creating a World Class Public Transportation System, we will only find ourselves being held hostage in future funding fights.

The present fight brought to light many politicians, such as machine Democrats. Instead of fighting for constituents, they decided to moonwalk out of the sausage factory in Springfield—when they were needed the most. 

It was only House representative Delgado stood up and reminded the legislators that transportation funds are being misrepresented by its description as road funds. 

The fact that Illinois pays the least to public transportation in its transportation budget than other large cities, justifies the need to take money from large road construction companies. Sadly, I must report that the very union we trusted to guide us in Springfield, also gave Republican State Senator John Curran.

The Chicagoland Operators Joint Labor-Management PAC (Operators Local 150) contributed $250,000 and later $107,750 for a total of $357,750 to John Curran. There are craft unions that work beside us at the CTA that contributed to John Curran. They need pressure for accountability as well. 

Our leadership at the ATU should be aware that in a normal CTA Carman's (Car Repairer) workweek, our section and coworkers perform all of the duties being performed by the higher-wage Craft unions—in addition to troubleshooting. 

When in joint negotiations, they may need to be reminded that—while we can perform the duties of Electricians, Carpenters, Machinists, etc.—not one of them can perform all of those duties like the us. 

We hold the cards in this bastardized effort to keep us divided for wages. So we should never stay silent while we fight the MAGA agenda and our co-workers who contribute to their candidates. We should be ever watchful of our homegrown Democrat politician who takes a donation from Wells-Fargo Bank and can’t be found when ICE repels onto the roof of a building owned by Wells-Fargo (which contains people he represents as well). This includes the politicians being more worried about their re-election than the ATU fighting for jobs of voters in his district.

Once again this is an opinion:

If the Democrats we counted on retreated when we were at war for our survival, they need to be kept at arms-length. 

For the Democrats willing to fight for us without being asked, we need to start standing beside them and pressuring them to fix the CTA with its new found funding.

Republicans and union leadership who wish to hurt the working class by destroying public transportation should no longer be welcome to craft awful bills for our union members! 

We need to continue to push for reform of the redundant transportation boards. See the attachment of the new board structures and you will notice that the riders and the public transportation workers are not seated at the table. 

This colorful picture only lacks the late John Madden football telestrator to show one team taking the funding from the other and sneaking by another while tackling the rider and grabbing the ATU by the facemask.

A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars. It’s where the rich use public transportation.—Gustavo Petro

Additional reading: 

Taking a (sleepy) Victory Lap with House Majority Leader Delgado

During Transit Talks, Senator Durran Saw a Spike in Donations 

 

The opinions expressed by guest bloggers here or in Shop Talk newsletter are not necessarily the opinion or sanctioned policies and actions by Brother Eric Curtis Muhammad Basir, ATU Local 308 members, elected leadership or stewards. In the spirit of the First Amendment and the ATU Obligation, all CTA workers and supporters are welcome to submit content of any point-of-view for this blog. Real identities will be hidden upon request.