CTA chief aims to end paid ‘coffee time,’ lunch, bathroom breaks

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Facing a $277 million budget shortfall, CTA President Forrest Claypool (pictured in June) is challenging unions: “It’s only in the ‘Alice in Wonderland’ world of these crazy work rules that people are paid millions of dollars to do nothing. | Jean Lachat~Sun-Times

Updated: November 16, 2011 11:20AM

Fifteen minutes of paid “coffee time” before the start of each shift. Twenty-minute paid bathroom breaks for customer assistants with easy access to washrooms. Paid lunch breaks for CTA rail operators and Sunday bus drivers. Paying workers convicted of drunk driving to do nothing for 180 days while they appeal and attempt to get their driving privileges back. Starting the clock on emergency overtime when employees get the phone call at home instead of when they arrive at work.

Those are some of the CTA work rules that CTA President Forrest Claypool wants to change in order to fill a $277 million shortfall in the CTA budget without raising fares or cutting service.

Taking a page out of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s playbook, he’s turning up the heat on organized labor — and giving CTA riders a peek at 14 of those changes he is seeking aimed at saving tens of millions of dollars.

“It’s a widely-accepted concept that you’re paid for work performed. It’s only in the Alice in Wonderland world of these crazy work rules that people are paid millions of dollars to do nothing,” Claypool said.

“Two years ago, the CTA was forced to cut service and lay off 1,100 workers. There are tens of millions of dollars available that can preserve jobs and preserve service, if only we can eliminate these unproductive work rules. All we’re asking for is eight hours’ work for eight hours’ pay.”

He added, “They’re supposed to be in their trains ready to go when their shift begins. It’s normal in every business in America to show up for work on time. The CTA is the only place I know of where we pay people for their pre-work coffee time.”

At City Hall, Emanuel went public with work rule changes that sounded reasonable to the average working stiff.

He won in the court of public opinion, but lost the battle. City unions gave the demand for cost-saving work rule changes the same cold shoulder that they gave to Emanuel’s campaign.

Claypool appears to be headed for a similar fall.

Larry Hanley, international president of the Amalgamated Transit Union, accused the tag team of Claypool and Emanuel of attempting to “tar and feather” hardworking CTA employees whose unions spent the last century negotiating work rules tailored to the unique “working conditions that exist in transit systems.

“I find it incredible that Rahm Emanuel, who personally made $18 million in two years trading his influence in the industry that has brought our nation to financial collapse is now saying that people who work on the tracks and in buses and subways should not be allowed to go the bathroom,” Hanley said.

“Does Rahm take himself off the clock when he uses the urinal — or is he just using bus drivers and train workers as urinals?”

Robert Kelly, president of Amalgamated Transit Workers Union Local 308 representing motormen, said what Claypool calls “coffee time” is a 15-minute window to give motormen time to park sometimes a block away and get in the cab of a train before it’s scheduled to leave the station.

“If he wants to eliminate that, I’ve got no problem with that. But, that also means that train won’t go out at 8 a.m. It’s gonna mean huge service delays,” he said.

Kelly said he’s furious that Claypool would go public with the proposed work rule changes before sharing them with the union leaders whose support he needs to lift those rules.

“We’ve just started a boxing match. It’s the end of the first round. I’m walking back to my corner and he comes up behind me and sucker punches me. That’s what this feels like. If I didn’t know better, I’d think I was in Wisconsin dealing with a Republican governor,” he said.

Last week, Claypool set the stage for fare hikes, service cuts or a combination of the two in the 2012 budget he will unveil later this month.

He disclosed that the CTA is facing a $277 million shortfall — 20 percent of its operating budget — because of “skyrocketing” labor costs and “archaic” work rules that must be changed.

At the time, CTA spokesperson Molly Sullivan talked about the $40 million worth of overtime the agency pays and the “extra board” of back-up employees it carries to cover for absenteeism rates now 2.5 times the no-show rate in the private sector.

She also talked about limits on discipline built into union contracts that make it difficult to punish no-shows. For example, an employee can only be discharged for excessive absenteeism after seven occurrences while consecutive absent days are considered one occurrence.

Other costly work rules outlined for the Chicago Sun-Times include:

◆ Paid holidays for birthdays and work anniversaries that guarantee bus drivers and motorman who chose to work on those days 2.5 times their normal hourly wage.

◆ Forcing the CTA to run a normal schedule of buses and trains, even on slow days like the Friday after Thanksgiving and the week between Christmas and New Years, instead of “right-sizing” service to meet demand.

◆ A “spread premium” that pays operators — who pick their shifts based on seniority — time-and-a-half for working more than 10.5 hours a day. They receive the extra pay even if they deliberately pick runs at the beginning and end of a day and take a 5.5-hour break in between. ◆ A guaranteed, three hours’ pay for any work done outside a janitor’s normal hours, whether or not that janitor works more than eight hours in a given day.