A last-minute negotiation session between the CTA's top brass and its union chiefs won't stop the service cuts that will hit Chicago transit this Sunday, leaving many transit riders, literally, out in the cold.
But the meeting, brokered by Mayor Richard M. Daley, has restarted previously-dead negotiations that could yet restore the city's transit system after the cuts take place.
A deal could not be reached Friday evening, and won't be reached until at least next week, because Amalgamated Transit Union locals 241 and 308 must ask their members to approve any concessions.
"They’ve given us a menu of items to choose from, and put a dollar amount to them," said ATU 308 President Robert Kelly, head of the "L" operators' union. "We can't come to a conclusion in 48 hours. Our membership has to have a say in it — it's their contract."
ATU 308 has a meeting scheduled for Tuesday, Kelly said. ATU 241, the bus operators' union, said it would try to schedule one as soon as possible.
The CTA and its unions have been sparring since last fall, with the unions refusing to discuss concessions until it changed the way it was planning to lay off employees. However, with the mayor's helping hand, the union presidents seemed much more willing to work with the CTA after Friday's meeting.
"A lot of animosity had built up between people, and at least that's out of the way," said Darrell Jefferson, president of ATU 241. "[Mayor Daley] told us the reality of it: that there’s nothing on the table, there’s no money there, the economy’s bad."
Kelly agreed.
"We were at a stalemate, going nowhere, and here you had a chance to have someone else of power and authority come in. He didn’t dictate 'You should do this and that,' but he did open up the dialog, and that’s a start."
CTA Board Chairman Terry Peterson said he was thankful that the unions were recommitted to solving the problem, but reiterated that money needs to be on the table immediately.
"Real savings need to be realized for 2010 and 2011," Peterson said.
If the unions provide either a full or partial solution to fill the $95 million gap, Peterson said CTA's budget team will work overtime to restore service back to the city's streets.
First to have their service restored if a settlement is reached will be the 41 bus routes whose start and end times have been cut short.
Windy Citizen 