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Getbig Main Boards => Politics and Political Issues Board => Topic started by: Soul Crusher on January 26, 2010, 10:45:25 AM
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Unions Angry Over City's 'No Snow, No Pay' Policy
Part-Time Drivers Can Now Be Sent Home After 2 Hours If Snow Doesn't Fall Reporting
Jay Levine CHICAGO (CBS) ― Click to enlarge1 of 1
CBS
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They're supposed to keep you safe, clearing ice and snow from the runways at O'Hare and Midway. But thousands of Chicago truck drivers are threatening to strike because some fellow union members are no longer guaranteed a full day's pay when there's no snow.
CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine reports.
No one argues about an honest day's work for a day's pay. But how about a day's pay for no work? That's the way it used to be, many days, anyway, at Chicago's airports -- until the city started enforcing a provision of the contract that has union officials threatening a city-wide work stoppage.
Airport snow removal is carried out by Teamster drivers. Half of them are full-time, year-round airport employees. The other half are part-time seasonal workers, who, until this year, came to work and put in eight hours, even when there was no snow.
"You can't guarantee someone not to work for eight hours ... you just can't do that, whether in government or in the private sector," Mayor Richard M. Daley said.
We were paying them for eight hours even though we didn't have to. Enter the mayor's new aviation commissioner, Rosemarie S. Andolino, who scrutinized the labor agreement with drivers.
CBS 2 has obtained a letter from Teamsters' leaders to airline officials calling the newly enforced policy "a disastrous plan" and charging the city with choosing "to ignore the safety of millions of air travelers." The policy could end up leaving workers "miles away from the airports, unprepared to combat unexpected winter weather."
Andolino says that's not the case.
"We can call in another shift early," she said. "We have a complement of drivers here during that time period."
The new policy has only been in effect since Jan. 1. The mayor calls it necessary.
Andolino, who says the new policy will save up to $1 million yearly, says the Teamsters are being asked to do what everyone else is.
"Nobody likes change, but I know that I get paid for the time I work, not for the time I don't work," she said.
CBS 2 tried repeatedly to reach both the airport Teamsters union local as well as the Teamsters Joint Council. Neither returned calls.
This is the same union that refused the mayor's request that they take furlough days like other city employees and ended up sacrificing members with the least seniority to layoffs.
Now they're threatening a strike vote for later this week, which would authorize a strike by all Teamsters working for the city.
CBS 2 Political Producer Ed Marshall contributed to this report.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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What a disgrace. No wonder our nation is dead broke with thieves like this.
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Wtf is with the entitlement attitude these union workers have? If I don't work, I don't get paid, why should it be any different for them?