Our Hal Dardick is on the story.

Nearly $18 million could be saved by getting rid of 200 City of Chicago truck drivers who spend parts of their work day loafing or even sleeping , according to a report by Inspector General Joseph Ferguson.

The recommended number of layoffs is about the same as the number of drivers who spend their days doing nothing more than taking other workers to job sites and waiting while those workers do their assigned tasks, according to the report. The inefficiencies are essentially locked in place by a long-term city labor contract that makes change nearly impossible, the report concluded.

Key passage:

The primary reason for the extra truck drivers is a city contract with Teamsters Local 700 that makes it very difficult, and in the case of contractors nearly impossible, to transfer truck driver responsibilities to other employees, according to the report. The 10-year contract does not expire until June 2017.

Mayor Richard Daley in 2007 entered long-term contracts with the city’s unions to eliminate any chance of labor strife as Chicago launched its ultimately unsuccessful bid on the 2016 Summer Olympics. City revenues peaked that year.

The national economy tanked not long after that and Chicago, like other cities across the nation, was faced mounting financial struggles. When Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel takes office in May, he faces city budget shortfalls that could top $1 billion a year.

“By signing a 10-year (contract) with the Teamsters (and with over 30 other unions representing city employees), the current administration and City Council unduly hamstrung not only the current management of city government, but the next six years of management as well, a period that extends well beyond the elected terms of the incoming administration and City Council,” Ferguson’s report states.

UPDATE:

Teamsters spokesman Brian Rainville said it was the Daley administration, not the Teamsters, that wanted the 10-year deal. It would not be fair to go back on it now, he said.

“The city agreed to the contract because that’s what they wanted,” he said. “When the city was in boom times, did we say, ‘Hey, let’s open this up, you guys are flush?’ ”

Rainville also disputed Ferguson’s contention that the city could eliminate the jobs of 200 truck drivers, contending the city is short on needed drivers because of its tight budget. Cutting the jobs could result in more time and an overall cost increase to taxpayers, he said.

Daley’s office, meanwhile, said it is working on a response.

Update II: The city responds:

CITY OF CHICAGO DISPUTES INSPECTOR GENERAL REPORT REGARDING MOTOR TRUCK DRIVERS

Report Shows “Fundamental Lack of Understanding” of Collective Bargaining Agreements; Suggestions Threaten to “Unnecessarily Politicize” Collective Bargaining Process

The City of Chicago responded today to the Inspector General Office’s (IGO) report regarding motor truck drivers and the collective bargaining process.

The IGO report suffers from a fundamental lack of understanding of the nature of collective bargaining, the laws governing union-employer relations, and the dynamics of the negotiation process,” said Eugene L. Munin, City of Chicago Budget Director.

The City stated that the IGO’s recommendations with respect to changes in collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) such as limiting the duration of CBAs, and prohibiting the negotiation of interim agreements, would all severely hamstring the City’s flexibility in negotiations, and its ability to work with the unions to respond to operational needs as they arise.

“Had the IGO’s office any substantive knowledge of the contracts or talked to those with knowledge, they would know that COUPE agreements, including Teamsters, do contain contract reopening provisions in several areas,” Munin added.

Munin pointed out that, on the most fundamental level, merely shortening the length of a contract does not impact the City’s ability to achieve efficiencies. 

“The suggestion to track CBA’s along the terms of elected officials would also unnecessarily politicize the union negotiation process.  In fact, we think it is a totally irresponsible and naïve suggestion that would greatly empower employee unions to push candidates to protect union benefits, instead of protecting taxpayers,” said Munin.

He also said the report completely ignores or is apparently unaware of the numerous gains in collective bargaining the administration has made over the years, with the cooperation of the unions, providing the City with enhanced operational flexibility, and in response to financial pressures on the City’s budget.  It also fails to recognize the comprehensive, ongoing analysis that the City’s OBM and operating departments do undertake throughout the negotiation process.

Munin said the “traditional work” clause, which is referred to in much of the report, is not just common to City CBAs, but is virtually universal in collective bargaining.  He said that no marginally-competent union would ever agree to a CBA that did not contain such a clause. 

The components of what is considered “traditional work” were negotiated in the mid-1980’s.  And as is common in all union agreements – work rules and benefits already been negotiated for by unions are typically not given up without some other compensation – the definition of negotiation.

Even as the IGO says that side agreements are not a good idea, they contradict themselves when recognizing that a side agreement was the critically-important vehicle through which the City successfully gained concessions saving Chicago taxpayers $70M through the COUPE agreement, whereby nearly 30 unions agreed to these cost-cutting measures. 

“In reality, these side letters do constitute an ‘opening’ of the contract, and any person with institutional knowledge of labor agreements knows that side letters typically benefit management,” added Munin.

Because of their lack of understanding of the City’s collective bargaining agreements, the IGO fails to recognize the work rule improvements for MTD’s that the City has negotiated to protect taxpayers in the last several years, though both the CBA process and side letters, including:

In negotiations for the 2003-2007 CBAs with the Trades (including the Teamsters), the City was able to negotiate a memorandum of agreement affording the City enhanced flexibility in scheduling weekend and off-shift work at straight time rates.

During the same negotiations, the City was able to negotiate “break-in” rates for MTDs, allowing the City to hire new MTDs at 80% of the regular MTD rate in the first year, and 90% in the second year.

MTD’s who have been injured on duty are now brought back to work to drive smaller rodent control vehicles (rather than being paid to stay at home), freeing other drivers to drive the larger equipment

I see very little in the city’s response to address the major problem highlighted in the report, which suggests that the City allowed excessively lax work rules to be written into the Teamsters’ contract. Read longer excerpts from the report below: