ChicagoClout

City trucker union rejects contract
Tribune staff report
August 31, 2007
Members of Teamsters Local 726, which represents about 2,000 city truck drivers, voted 270-172 to reject a proposed 10-year contract agreement with City Hall, said Marty Zamora, a union steward who opposed the proposed pact.

Union members who voted no had concerns about such things as sick-day provisions, the possibility of future privatization of some city services and locking into an agreement for 10 years instead of the usual 4 years, Zamora said Thursday.

Union officers were unavailable for comment.
"The next step is to go back to the bargaining table," said Jodi Kawada, a city spokeswoman. "We will determine what the concerns are and work to address them."

The current agreement with the union contains a no-strike provision, Kawada said.

Earlier this month, Local 726 was one of 33 unions that reached tentative agreements with the city on long-term deals that would carry through the 2016 Olympics. Chicago is the United States' candidate vying to host the event.

Teamsters reject 10-yr. city pact

August 31, 2007
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter/fspielman@suntimes.com
There's a fly in the ointment that threatens to disturb Mayor Daley's carefully crafted plan to guarantee labor peace through the 2016 Summer Olympics.
By a vote of 279-172, Teamsters Local 726 voted Wednesday night to reject the unprecedented, 10-year deal that would lock in the prevailing wage for 8,000 members of the building trades.

The contract apparently fell victim to a power struggle within Local 726. The union represents 2,000 city employees, including truck drivers, equipment dispatchers, foremen, booters, garage attendants and cashiers.

Employees fighting to unseat the union's existing leadership team lobbied against the deal, arguing that it undermines seniority and opens the door for massive layoffs at a time when Daley's new 21st Century Commission is exploring the idea of privatizing garbage collection and the city's water filtration plants.

"We're all truck drivers. We always had citywide seniority. Now, they want to make it departmental seniority. If a guy has 30 years on with Streets and San and they decide to privatize sanitation, all those guys with all those years are gone," said truck driver Vincent Tenuto Jr., who lobbied against the contract and is among those hoping to unseat the union's executive board.

"There's a clause in there that says the mayor could subcontract our jobs out. We want that removed. We have 2,100 jobs in 2007. We expect to have 2,100 jobs in 2017. They're also taking away our seniority so they can put anybody they want wherever they want. It feels like legalized clout."

Jim Franczek, the city's chief negotiator, could not be reached for comment, nor could Chicago Federation of Labor President Dennis Gannon.

The Teamsters' thumbs-down vote was disclosed hours after Daley bragged to reporters about his ability to guarantee labor peace.

"Many of your articles said, 'This is going to be a very, very difficult year. Oh my God. We've got the CTA unions. We've got the city unions. We have unions from the Board of Education. Oh, there's going to be chaos. There's going to be a crisis. They're not going to work together. There's a difference between the mayor and all these unions,' " Daley said sarcastically.

"What happened? . . . . It all worked out because we sat down with the belief that we can work with our unions -- a 10-year agreement. It's amazing. They want stability. We want stability," he said.

Good for the Teamsters, rejecting this lame-assed, pathetic attempt, by daley and his liar-negotiators, to screw the union's members with a shit contract.

One of the few strong elements left are our unions.

The members must never allow their 'leaderships' to sell them out.

Stand strong, Local 726.

Every other union in this town should learn from your example.

Teamsters ready to try again
Job security, length of city deal at issue

By Gary Washburn | Tribune staff reporter
September 3, 2007
Leaders of the only union so far to turn down a new 10-year contract with Chicago will return to the bargaining table after Labor Day.

"We're going to try to iron out some of our members' concerns," said Tom Clair, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 726.

The union represents truck drivers in the Streets and Sanitation, Water Management, Transportation and other city departments.
Some members voiced concern over job security and the possibility of future privatization, Clair said.

"What we're looking for, if there is something that is privatized, is that our members will not be out of a job" and instead will be given the right to take positions in other city departments based on seniority, he said.

Opponents of the proposed contract also questioned the wisdom of locking into a long-term contract instead of the usual four-year deal.

To alter that provision might require the Teamsters to drop out of the coalition of 33 unions that jointly negotiated new contracts, Clair said.

"I really think if the members understood it a little bit more, they would go for the 10 years," he said. "It's a matter of education and trying to explain the good points of the 10-year contract."

The pact would have guaranteed city drivers the same hourly wage negotiated by the Teamsters with private firms over the next decade, and "I think that is very good," Clair said.

Local 726 members turned down the contract Wednesday by a wide margin, but with relatively few votes cast. The tally was 270 to 172. The union has about 2,000 members.

Union officials are expected to push for greater participation at the ballot box when a new tentative agreement is reached.

Mayor Richard Daley and top labor officials on Aug. 7 hailed tentative contract accords with the Teamsters and 32 other unions representing another 6,000 city workers. The 10-year terms would carry through 2016, when the city hopes to host the Olympic Games.

The city has yet to hammer out new contracts with other bargaining units, including the Chicago Fire Fighters Union and the Fraternal Order of Police.

Separately, tentative agreements for five-year contracts have been reached with teachers and other public school employees and with Chicago Transit Authority bus and rail workers.

HEY HOLD ON !! This Tom Clair has no idea what the membership wants, he never asked the membership what we wanted in this NEW 10 year contract, this guy is out of touch with the members, If this guy TOM CLAIR is doing a good job why is they so many slates running to unset these guys!!! I am a member of LOCAL 726, these guys are so FULL of Crap, they lie, cheat, no loyality, no respect, MAYBE the JUSTICE DEPT. should inquire about the dealing the LOCAL 726 does, LOOK up the STEER REPORT, it shows the corruption that the teamsters we into !!! THIS IS WHAT I SAY " DUMP DALEY AND HIS BOYZ IN 726" " JUST SO NO TO THE CONTACT AND TO DALEY"

Glad to read that at least one union isn't drinking the Daley Koolaid ! Just got back from Flint Michigan where I attended the commemoration events marking the 70th anniversary of the Sit Down strike of 1936-37 that resulted in GM recognizing the UAW as the bargaining unit for its workers. Lots of inspiring labor speakers (including the national president of the UAW)followed by the ribbon cutting for the new permanent exhibit and learning center about the strike at the Sloan Museum of History in Flint. Worth visiting.
(Response) Thank for the nice post.

As a former member of Local 705 in the days of Peick, Ligurotis, and the likes of Carmell, Chrone, Widmer, Matthews & Moss et al who ran 705, ERISA Funds and all & Joint Council 25.

Study your By-Laws and change them, but don't ever retain Carmell's law firm. In my opinion they are nothing short of a "Criminal Racketeering Enterprise" with law licences arm in arm with the "Chicago Federation of Labor" where Carmell was "General Counsel".....AFL-CIO

Look up the "Chippman/Preston 151" withdrawal liabilities pension case in the federal court on Dearborn, he represented the employer against the Central States Pension Fund in conflict of interest to the drivers in 705 under contract. Its a true fact.