The One Reason Not To Re-Elect Keith Hill

In just a few weeks ATU Local 241 members will have the option to send Brother Keith Hill back to operating buses and put a new president in his place (the current opponent is Brother Uba Light). 

There are many reasons why I think he should not be re-elected. However, the most important one is that he—and Local 308 President Pennie McCoach—totally betrayed our trust and signed off on a waiver to our rights for Paid Sick Leave. These rights are enshrined in the following laws:

1. City of Chicago 6-130 (2019, 2024)
2. Cook County 24-0583 (2024) 
3. State of Illinois 820 ILCS 192 (2024). 

Fellow Local 308 union steward, Brother Chris Campisi, previously wrote in-depth about this asinine waiver on my blog. It includes a useful chart comparing the wage tiers and sick leave "benefits."

Please examine the signed waiver as written in the full, legal Tentative Agreement that I obtained through a CTA Freedom of Information Act Request (click or tap to enlarge it). I have highlighted the most relevant portions. President Keith and President Pennie's signatures were redacted by the CTA:

This is the same as signing off on a Contract that permits child labor, 7-day work weeks or chattel slavery. It is backwards. It is treasonous. 

To be clear, the "enhanced sick-leave benefits" mentioned are nowhere to be found in our Collective Bargaining Agreement ("Contract")! They are deceptively explained away under the "7-Day Sick Pay" title for Article 15.13 in the Collective Bargaining Agreement ("Contract"). 

This is directly referred to as "Short-Term Disability" in the CTA's own Administrative Procedure (AP) documents 1009 and 1010. The "7-Day…" is explained under definition 3.11 of AP 1009 and 4.2 of AP 1010 as the period of time that must elapse before a claim for pay can be made. 

As I explain in my Paid Sick Leave For CTA Workers Petition, CTA AP's 1009 (non-union employees) and 1010 (union employees) are the CTA's own admission that we do not have Paid Sick Leave benefits:

The CTA managers received Paid Sick Leave and Short-Term Disability, while we only receive Short-Term Disability! How is this just? How is this fair? Are the managers more deserving than us? No one has given me a good reason why! 

Below is the entire Tentative Agreement Summary that Keith and Pennie gave us before we voted on this Paid Sick Leave-Killing Contract. Examine each page: Not a single reference to the Article 15.13 and Paid Sick Leave Waiver was mentioned. That part—as explained above—was hidden from us!

Many pro-CTA union boss agents and their loyalists mock my demand for Paid Sick Leave by saying I want the CTA to pay us to not show up to work (ATU Local 308 Vice President Mark Weems actually said this to me and other officials in a recent union Executive Board meeting). 

However, these same detractors don't say that about the CTA managers!  

Look at a snapshot of what we are missing in City of Chicago Municipal Code 6-130:

The above is the bare-minimum that would cover all of us—including CSA, FTT Flagmen, FTT Trackmen, Second Chancer and Part-Time Bus Operators. Yet we don't have it because Local 241 President Keith Hill and Local 308 President Pennie McCoach waived it!

I humbly implore all Local 241 members to reject Keith Hill as president this December, 2025. 

Additionally, I implore all Local 308 members to reject Pennie McCoach as president for the General Elections on the third Tuesday of November, 2026. Of course, I am running against her and intend on leading the liberation of Local 308 from CTA control.