(The following story by Kim Janssen appeared on the Chicago Sun-Times website on February 8, 2010.)
CHICAGO — A tentative deal that allows 38 CTA maintenance workers to keep their jobs in return for concessions is a sign that other unions may be ready to cut a deal and get canceled buses back on the road, CTA chief Richard Rodriguez said today.
The railroad maintenance workers were among 1,057 workers laid off Sunday as part of cutbacks that saw 18 percent of bus services and 9 percent of train services canceled.
They returned to work this morning after agreeing in principle to “take some unpaid days” and to defer scheduled pay increases, Rodriguez said.
Though their return isn’t enough to allow the CTA to reinstate canceled services, Rodriguez said the deal “is a good sign that the union is willing to work with us.”
But Amalgamated Transit Union Local 241 president Darrell Jefferson, who represents 903 laid off bus drivers, and ATU Local 308 president Robert Kelly, who represents El workers, said they haven’t had a chance to study the deal the maintenance workers agreed to.
“We’ll have to see what the deal says and go and talk with our members first,” Jefferson said.
Further talks aren’t likely until Wednesday at the earliest, they said. Jefferson said he needs reassurances that “there won’t be another doomsday report in October 2010 like there was in October 2009.” Kelly added, “The tradesmens unions are going to do what they’re going to do, but it has nothing to do with us.”
The latest developments came as commuters faced their first workday of reduced service on the L and CTA buses today. CTA officials said more people had crowded onto some buses and trains but reported “no major delays.” Many commuters left for work early, anticipating delays, Rodriguez said.
But twice as many workers as normal appear to have had a case of the “blue flu,” failing to show up for work this morning, causing 30 extra buses to be cancelled, he said.
“There were some standing-room-only conditions on some routes, but that is typical of a rush period, usually what we have during work week rush periods,” CTA spokeswoman Wanda Taylor added.
Though Taylor described the extra time that commuters had to wait as minor, many didn’t see it that way.
“I was 45 minutes late for work,” said Darrion Peterson, 21, who picked up a No. 20 bus at Madison and Ashland to get to his job at a chocolate factory. “It’s cold out here, and my car caught a flat.”
Riders there said they had to wait as much as 40 minutes for a bus, compared to their usual 10 to 20 minute wait. Until Sunday, the now-cancelled No. X20 Ashland express ran along the same route.
Ionia Spicer, 61, is used to long commutes. She said it normally takes her two and a half hours to make the two-bus, one-train journey from her home in Englewood to her job at a dry-cleaning plant in Highwood. And that’s on a good day. It was clear this morning, as she shivered waiting for a No. 9 bus, that today wasn’t going to be a good day.
“Now, I’ll have to get up at 3 a.m. to get to work by 7:30,” she said. “I just don’t think it’s fair. They keep putting the fares up. What are they doing with the money?” Metra spokesman Tom Miller said it was “too soon” to tell if more passengers had taken Metra trains this afternoon.
And Illinois Department of Transportation spokeswoman Marisa Kollias said there was no noticeable increase in rush hour traffic on Chicago’s expressways.
The CTA is still negotiating with its unions in hopes of getting concessions to make up all or part of what it says is a $95 million budget deficit that it blames on a decline in tax revenues.
The service cutbacks took effect starting Sunday. Nine express-bus routes were eliminated. Service on 41 other bus routes has been reduced. And there are now longer waits for all L lines other than the Yellow Line / Skokie Swift.