Hundreds of bus operators, Occupy Chicago, ANSWER Chicago (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) and community members came out Nov. 10 to protest at a Chicago Transit Authority budget hearing. Amalgamated Transit Union Local 241 put out a call for its members and allies to speak out at a CTA budget hearing held on Chicago’s South Side.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s appointee, CTA President Forrest Claypool, is spearheading an attack on CTA workers. He is attempting to divide CTA workers and riders by saying that there will be no fare hikes or service cuts if the unions agree to an $80 million pay cut in the form of new work rules and “reduced labor costs.”
Claypool has defamed transit workers, saying that they have too many bathroom breaks and too many days off and are paid too much. Outrageously, he has even attacked work safety rules that are in place so that workers are not seriously injured and do not die on the job.
Signs at the hearing read: “We Stand Together: CTA Workers are the 99%!”
Dozens of CTA workers spoke at the public hearing. Bus operators called out Claypool, who was sitting at the front of the room a few feet from the speakers, for being a liar as they talked about the real conditions in the garages and out on their routes. Chants of “Claypool Out!” were repeated throughout the event.
Drivers also informed the board that it could very easily solve the phony “budget shortfall” if operators’ ideas about how to run CTA were made a reality.
One bus operator, Juanita, said: “You are not going to balance the budget on our backs. Not this time. When I go to work I give it my all and so do all my sisters and brothers. We have already given up too much to you guys. We don’t have anything left to give.”
Many operators related how their bus schedules give them no time for a bathroom break, how the bathrooms in the garages are unsanitary and how the lack of bathroom breaks has led to serious medical problems.
Other drivers told the truth about their days off and their work day. Unlike many workers, bus operators must work on holidays. They only get three days off a year. It takes years for workers to be able to get holidays off, so many of them never spend holidays with their families.
The truth: CTA employees are pressured to work overtime by the CTA brass. A common grievance against the board was that current work rules make it so many workers “hardly ever see their families.”
ANSWER Chicago organizer Jim Rudd spoke at the CTA hearing: “When millions of people need transit to get to their jobs each day in order to produce the wealth of this city and nation, it’s not the CEOs and politicians who drive the buses and conduct the trains. It is the CTA workers who risk injury and even death to take us to work to create the wealth of this country. Labor is the foundation of all the things that the people need, not mayors, corporate fat cats and CTA board members. We will not be divided. The 99 percent will stand together. No Service Cuts! No Fare Hikes! Hands off the Union and CTA workers!”
