WORK FREEZE?
Union representing city’s snowplow and garbage truck drivers eyes possible strike vote Sunday
As if the deep freeze isn’t enough of a slap in the face, how about this worry for winter- weary Chicagoans? A strike with the potential to paralyze city snow removal, garbage pickups and pothole repairs.
Teamsters Local 700 has set a “contract meeting and possible strike vote” for 10 a. m. Sunday to protest the union’s displeasure over contract talks with the city to replace a 10- year agreement that expired six months ago.
Local 700 represents 2,032 city employees, the biggest chunk of the city’s unionized workforce outside of police officers and firefighters.
Members of Teamsters Local 700 drive garbage trucks and snowplows. They clear runways and taxiways at O’Hare and Midway airports.
In addition to “motor truck drivers” in the city’s Streets and Sanitation and Transportation departments, the union represents garage attendants who fuel and maintain city vehicles and attendant cashiers at O’Hare and Midway parking garages and lots.
“It would be devastating if we went on strike,” said a union member, who agreed to speak only anonymously due to ongoing contract talks.
“The city wouldn’t be able to get to water main breaks because you need to take a truck.”
Becky Strzechowski, president of Teamsters Local 700, said the union has three bargaining sessions this week that likely will determine whether a strike can be averted.
“Local 700 has also invited all of our [ city] members to a meeting at the end of the week, and we have informed them that there may be a strike authorization vote at this meeting,” Strzechowski was quoted as saying in an emailed statement.
“A strike authorization vote does not mean we are going on strike, and the need for the vote will depend on the results of the subsequent negotiation sessions.”
Streets and Sanitation spokesperson Sara McGann had no immediate comment on what, if any, contingency plan the city has.
Strzechowski is a protégé of former Teamsters boss John Coli Sr.
A former key ally of Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Gov. Bruce Rauner, Coli Sr. was indicted last summer for allegedly extorting $ 100,000 from Cinespace Studios Chicago, the city’s largest TV and film production studio.
Coli Sr. is also facing scrutiny over union deals that have funneled millions of dollars to his son’s law firm, according to records obtained by the Sun- Times.
After backing Emanuel in the 2011 mayoral campaign, Coli Sr. was instrumental in helping the mayor deliver two rounds ofwork- rule changes that changed the economic landscape at McCormick Place and made Chicago more competitive against hardcharging convention cities like Las Vegas, Orlando and Atlanta.
At the time, Coli Sr. said his members “gave till it hurt” after receiving a guarantee that “robust audits” would be conducted to verify that labor savings are passed on to exhibitors and not used to pad profits for show managers.
The decadelong contract that expired June 30 guaranteed city tradespeople the prevailing wage paid to their counterparts in private industry.
The contract also includes “breakin rates” that allow the city to pay “new career service and seasonal and pool motor truck drivers” at a rate equal to “80 percent of the prevailing wage for the first year of employment and 90 percent for the second year.”
Former Mayor Richard M. Daley has been widely criticized for signing off on the agreement to guarantee labor peace through the 2016 Summer Olympic Games that ultimately went to Rio de Janeiro.
“This tradition is extremely costly because it pays city tradespeople for a full work week at the highest rate paid to similar tradespeople in private practice,” Inspector General Joe Ferguson wrote last spring.
At the time, Ferguson urged Emanuel to shorten future contracts and consider including a “mandatory mid- term re- opener” that would be triggered in the event of a “fiscal emergency.”
Chicago Federation of Labor President Jorge Ramirez has accused Ferguson of painting a distorted picture of the contract and its prevailing wage provisions.
“The rates are the same. But what he doesn’t get into is that the benefits are not the same. It’s significantly less that the city pays for health insurance, pensions and so forth than the guys on the outside,” Ramirez said on the day the inspector general released his report.
Ramirez, chairman of the labor heavy investor group that recently purchased the Sun- Times, argued that the long- term agreement “benefited the city tremendously,” with “millions upon millions” saved on health care alone.
“ITWOULD BE DEVASTATING IF WE WENT ON STRIKE. THE CITY WOULDN’T BE ABLE TO GET TOWATER MAIN BREAKS BECAUSE YOU NEED TO TAKE A TRUCK.” ANONYMOUS UNION MEMBER