Daley cites union contract in truckers paid to sit around
Mayor Daley tried Friday to answer the $18 million question posed by his inspector general: why City Hall tolerates having 200 motor truck drivers “paid to do nothing” but drive crews to their work sites and wait in the vehicle until they finish.
“It was a 1985 or `83 [work rule]. … It was prior [to the Daley years]. You should have reported that,” said the mayor, who took office in 1989.
Daley was asked why he did not negotiate an end to the costly rule during 22 years of negotiations with the Teamsters Union.
“You have to give and take. You give something — and sometimes it’s not worth taking it away. You know that. You can see what’s happening all over,” he said.
“When you want to take something away from somebody — and you know that in your own unions — your union leadership will want something [in return]. And that wanting is more expensive” than you hope.
A Teamsters Union contract that runs until June 2017 prohibits the city from transferring certain driver responsibilities to other employees, except during emergencies. Nor is the city allowed to sub-contract services in a way that would trigger driver layoffs.