CITY GIVES RETIRED WORKERS THE SHAFT, TREATS THEM LIKE BIG DUMMIES...

From the Chicago Tribune: City deal angers retirees

Union pact dashes back pay for some

A group of retired city workers, upset with City Hall and with the unions that once represented them, is protesting a contract settlement that denies them back pay.

The retirees, once members of the city's building trade unions, said it is unfair that they are being denied retroactive pay for hours they worked before leaving the payroll.

At issue is a four-year contract for nearly 30 unions replacing one that expired July 1, 2003, and that the Chicago City Council approved last week. The 8,000 active union members will receive back pay for the more than two years spent working out the deal, but workers who retired during that time will not.

"We're not being greedy," said James Sprandel, a 27-year employee who retired from the Department of Streets and Sanitation in April 2004. "If I didn't work for it, I don't want it."

Negotiators have said that the financially strapped city would save about $3 million by not giving back pay to an estimated 1,100 retirees in the building trades.

Jenny Hoyle, spokeswoman for the city's Law Department, said that the trade unions were not singled out, noting that City Hall had reached similar agreements with other city unions.

"The unions all agreed that we would not be giving retro checks to people who retired," Hoyle said. "There was a process of give-and-take. If they didn't give up the retroactive pay to retirees, we would have asked they give up something else in return."

Dennis Gannon, president of the Chicago Federation of Labor, did not return repeated messages left at his office seeking comment.

Retirees from the Teamsters, machinists, carpenters and electricians unions recently met with labor lawyer Tom Geoghegan about a possible lawsuit against the city. Geoghegan said he was still researching the issue.

"It's disturbing that they did not get their pay," he said. "These were people who were working while the negotiations went on."

About five dozen retired workers gathered in September at a Northwest Side restaurant to talk about the back-pay issue, Sprandel said. He estimated that the city owed him about $2,200, including overtime. Other workers, he said, probably are owed more.

Sprandel said the city forgot that he and his fellow workers had often missed holidays and other family events to clear the streets of snow and ice.

"I felt let down by the union, and I felt let down by the city," Sprandel said. "We worked those hours."

Marv Rubin retired as a motor truck driver in May 2004 from Streets and Sanitation after working for 34 years with the city. He figures he is owed between $1,200 and $1,400 in back pay. He said the issue was not just the money but fairness.

Although the public might not have much sympathy for the retirees' plight in the wake of political patronage and bribery scandals at City Hall, Rubin said, the vast majority of city employees are honest and hardworking.

"This is not a vendetta against the mayor," he said. "Nobody's asking for anything they didn't work for."

John Marcatante, a retired motor truck driver for the Department of Aviation, estimated that the city owed him more than $2,000.

"I'm only looking for what I worked for -- for what I am owed," he said.