City, union agree after 28 months of talks

July 20, 2005

BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter

After 28 months of nowhere bargaining, City Hall and 8,000 unionized members of the building trades have finally agreed to a new four-year contract that includes some of the work-rule changes that Mayor Daley says he needs to save $20 million a year.

Some of the concessions made by union leaders include 8 percent "break-in pay" for entry-level motor truck drivers and Streets and Sanitation laborers, an experimental workweek composed of four 10-hour days to reduce overtime and no retroactive pay for roughly 1,100 retirees, both sides said.

The building trades also agreed to Tuesday-through-Saturday and Wednesday-through Sunday work schedules in selected cases and "some modification" in existing requirements for time-and-a-half and double-time pay. Retirees who were on the payroll as of Jan.1, 2005, will get some retroactive pay, but not the full amount.

Daley abandons furlough request

In exchange, Daley agreed to drop his demand that unionized employees take two unpaid furlough days each year for the life of the contract and continue paying members of the building trades the prevailing wage received by their counterparts in private industry dating back to June 30, 2003, when the old contract expired.

Assuming ratification by the rank-and-file, the tentative agreement guarantees labor peace through the 2007 mayoral election and eliminates a source of political tension that Daley can ill afford at a time when he's reeling from the Hired Truck and city hiring scandals. During the marathon contract struggle, disgruntled union members pressed their case by staging raucous rallies outside City Hall and a series of town hall meetings across the city to turn up the heat on aldermen.

The savings generated by an array of work-rule changes should also help Daley balance his 2006 budget without a repeat of the $85.7 million in higher taxes and fees imposed this year.

"I'm very pleased that it's come to a conclusion. It's a shame that it took as long as it took. The people who suffered the most were our members," said Chicago Federation of Labor President Dennis Gannon.

"Work-rule changes, retroactive pay and the prevailing wage were very difficult items to work through. But in city government, sometimes they take their work force for granted. That's why it took so long. It was a respect issue and a workers' rights issue that they didn't pay attention to."

Budget Director John Harris had threatened to continue his privatization frenzy -- even though 40 aldermen have signed on to an ordinance that seeks to tie his hands -- if union leaders did not agree to cost-saving work-rule changes.

Stood fast on retiree pay

On Tuesday, Harris said the agreement "shows the unions understand and appreciate the many financial challenges facing the city and they displayed a willingness to work with us in order to provide more cost-effective services to the tax-paying public."

Sources on both sides said City Hall was unyielding in its determination to avoid cutting retroactive paychecks for retirees. Not only did it save taxpayers millions. It was a matter of priorities.

"If you have to draw a line for financial reasons, it's better to pay people who are here than people who aren't," said a City Hall source close to the talks.