TIME FOR CITY TO NEGOTIATE BETTER DEALS WITH UNIONS
Chicago city workers play by some strange rules. For example, one union contract requires that truck drivers, who are well paid because they have a special license and skills, be employed to do simple jobs that anybody could do, such as driving people to a worksite.
That kind of silliness — an insistence on “traditional- work restrictions” that cannot always be justified — has cost the city some $ 200 million in wasted money over 10 years, according to city Inspector General Joe Ferguson.
City workers also weather storms better than most folks.
In the last 10 years, despite the Great Recession, unionized city workers — about 90 percent of all city workers — enjoyed pay increases that outpaced the cost of living by at least 4.39 percent and by as much as 17.44 percent. Meanwhile, pay in the private sector stagnated.
Despite recent tax hikes, Chicago remains in a bad way financially, saddled with dangerously underfunded pensions, a low credit rating and school system that threatens to go bust. If Chicago is going to right its financial ship, it must drive a harder bargain with its 27,000 unionized workers.
To say so is by no means anti- union, but it is certainly protaxpayer, as Ferguson argues in compelling fashion in a new report released Tuesday.
Ferguson emphasizes the “immense value of Chicago’s unionized public servants,” and he eschews the kind of union- bashing Gov. Bruce Rauner has engaged in. He does not call AFSCME “Afscammy.” But he also lays out a strong case that the city’s union contracts are replete with questionable perks and inefficiencies, and he argues that right now is an ideal time to “realign” the relationship between the city and the unions.
You can bet Mayor Rahm Emanuel already knew that. Collectivebargaining agreements with many of the city’s major unions will expire on June 30, after a long 10 years, creating a crucial opportunity for a reset. Emanuel has attempted to renegotiate some of those contracts even before they expired, with some success, but now the unions have no choice but to come to the bargaining table.
Ferguson’s report, we suspect, is directed less at the mayor, or even at the City Council, than at the rest of us: Chicago taxpayers, voters, newspaper editorial boards and civic groups. It takes political courage, at least in a largely Democratic city, to drive a hard bargain with public unions. They fund the campaigns that put Democrats in office. City Hall is more likely to hang tough in negotiations if there is strong public support.
Chicago is a union town, proudly so. But the simple truth is that our city’s previous mayor, Richard M. Daley, gave away too much and demanded too little when he negotiated major unions’ contracts — such as with firefighters and the police — 10 years ago. Daley had his eye on bringing the Summer Olympics to Chicago in 2016, and he conceded far too much to guarantee labor peace.
Daley’s biggest mistake was to agree to a 10- year life for many of the agreements. That has made it almost impossible for the city to adjust to changes in financial conditions and needs. Property values and tax revenue plunged during the recession, as did the city’s ability to borrow at reasonable rates, but contractually obligated salaries kept climbing. Daley made no effort to limit future pay raises to increases in the cost of living.
Daley tied his own hands as mayor, but he also tied Emanuel’s hands, and every Chicago resident and business has paid the price. Taxes have been hiked and services have been cut.
Question: In this city beset by gun violence, how many more cops might Chicago have been able to hire?
Ferguson’s report offers a long list of union protections, rules and benefits that should be “fair game for discussion and compromise.” Some, such as an end to 10- year contracts and tying pay raises to the Consumer Price Index, are no- brainers.
Others, such as an end to the practice of paying city tradesmen the prevailing wage paid to hourly unionized tradesmen throughout Cook County, must be on the table for negotiation. A tradesman employed by the city collects an annual salary no matter what, while a tradesman in the private sector — such as an electrician who comes to your home — often gets paid only when doing a job.
Still other topics for negotiation suggested by Ferguson, such as the city’s generous $ 1,800 annual uniform allowance for police officers, are relatively minor. But a negotiation is all about give and take, creating a strategic incentive to put even such smaller issues on the table.
Chicago is up against it, a victim of its own bad financial decisions and larger forces that have buffeted cities across the country, especially in the old industrial Midwest.
But our city is fighting back, with the expectation that everyone will take a hit. Homeowners and businesses are feeling the pain, paying significantly more in property taxes and bracing for another likely hike.
It is time that Chicago’s unionized city workers took a haircut as well. Send letters to letters@ suntimes. com. Follow the Editorial Board on Twitter: @ csteditorials
If Chicago is going to right its financial ship, it must drive a harder bargain with its 27,000 unionized workers.