Members Only slate hosts meeting to discuss Local 726 concerns By Dermot ConnollyThe Members Only Slate (TMOS), a group of Teamsters Union Local 726 members who hope to take over leadership of the local in elections being held this fall, held a town hall meeting July 14 to discuss concerns they have about where the union is headed and their plans to improve it.
Angelo Fata, a Chicago Department of Water Management truck driver who is
running for president of the local on the TMOS ticket, hosted the Saturday
night forum along with Jose Guereca, a driver for the Chicago Department of
Streets & Sanitation who also is running on the slate. Local 726 mainly
represents truck drivers and dispatchers. Many work at various departments
in the City of Chicago, but others come from the Illinois Department of
Transportation and institutions such as the University of Illinois at
Chicago and Brookfield Zoo.
The forum was filmed at the CAN-TV studios at 32 S. Green St. for future broadcast.
At least four slates of candidates are running in the November elections. Fata and Guereca said they invited the other candidates, including the local’s current leadership led by John Falzone as president and Kenneth Brantley as vice president. No one else showed up, however.
“We invited a lot of other slates, but we will go ahead without them," said Fata. "We have a few issues we want to discuss.” Fata set out empty chairs on the podium across from him to represent what he called “the ghosts.”
Tres Peel, a water department dispatcher and fellow TMOS member, helped produce and direct the program, which Fata said was just the first of many planned town hall meetings. Fata said the forum would focus on “What is wrong with our union?”
Fata counts more than 25 years of experience with Local 726, although Guereca has been in the union only a few years. Both alleged that, in recent years, many members have lost faith in the union leadership’s ability to represent them well. They noted attendance at union meetings is down because members do not feel they are getting their questions answered properly. Their goals, they said, include restoring members’ trust in their leaders.
Representing rank and file
Since TMOS members embarked on their campaign to win union leadership positions almost two years ago, their main contention has been that current leaders are not representing rank and file members effectively or informing them about what is going on. They addressed those issues at the forum.
“We are in [contract] talks with the City now, and we don’t know what is going on,” said Fata.
He and Guereca want to form volunteer committees of Local 726 members who would sit in on negotiations and keep members informed about progress being made and issues discussed.
Fata has said that, when members file grievances about union rules not being followed and other issues, the cases often drag on for years even though they are supposed to handled in a timely fashion, in a matter of months at most.
“I have grievances that are two years old,” he said.
He also said drivers are being penalized too harshly for infractions such as minor accidents, in part because the union allegedly does not back them when they are called in for hearings before City officials.
“Guys are getting three days off [unpaid] for putting a scratch on a truck,” he said.
“A lot of times people go into these hearings and there is no one from the union there to back them up,” said Fata. He said a Local 726 business agent should be present at every hearing, and he wants to organize a committee to handle this and other issues, including the grievance process, health and welfare—which would handle health insurance issues for active members and retirees—and “restoring dignity” to the union.
Raymond Erickson, a Chicago Streets and Sanitation truck driver who is nearing retirement, was among an audience of Local 726 members who came out to hear what Fata and his group had to say.
'Something needs to be done'
“I don’t know if they have the answers, but something needs to be done,” said Erickson before the forum.
Erickson said much has changed in the entire Teamsters union since he joined in the early 1970s, not just on the local level.
“You don’t get the feeling that unions are doing anything for you anymore,” said Erickson, noting that, with each new contract, more benefits seem to be taken away. "The thinking among some in leadership positions is that 'you should be just happy you have a job,'” he added.
“There aren’t many unions out there worth anything,” agreed one man who did not want to be identified for fear of retribution.
During the forum, Erickson and others from Local 726 questioned the TMOS members. He asked Fata and Guereca why, although their contract still states Local 726 members are allowed to take five personal or sick days off per year, those days often are denied.
“They are in the contract, but they are really not,” Erickson said, explaining that if the departments are short-staffed, workers are denied the day off and docked pay if they stay home.
“They want us to schedule the days off, but how do you know even the day before if you are going to be sick the following day? If it is in the contract, you should be allowed to take it off,” he said.
“If they don’t have enough people, they should hire more,” said another union member in the audience.
Another bone of contention brought up was the fact that new hires now get 70% of the prevailing wage and that, during the probationary period, they can be fired and the union will not back them up, even though they pay union dues.
“I thought with a union all members were the same,” said Erickson.
Fata pledged at the end of the forum that his slate of candidates would do a much better job of representing the membership and winning members’ confidence.
“We are going to give 110% and earn their trust," Fata said. "We also have to bring young people into the union and give them positions of leadership.”
'Build the bridges'
““We are not bum-rapping anybody," Guereca said. "But we are working for the members. We’ve got to stop the bleeding. Then you have to build the bridges. That is how it is done.”
Fata said he looked forward to holding more forums, which he hoped would be attended by more candidates so the issues could be debated more fully.
. “No matter which slate wins the next election, changes have to be made," Fata said. "We cannot continue like this.”
Contacted afterward, Falzone dismissed TMOS and its goal of setting up member committees to tackle issues and keep workers informed.
Falzone added he has no intention of debating TMOS or appearing at any of the forums. He said he would have nothing to do with TMOS, and the current leadership is ignoring them mainly because “this is a union, and they are working with non-union operations like CAN-TV and you [the Gazette].”
Falzone believes the TMOS committee idea is unnecessary, and he defended his group’s leadership record, saying TMOS members "don’t know what they are talking about. We already have committees here. We have scholarship programs. We are doing a lot for our members.”
