CTA Using Unsafe Buses: Union Claims

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CHICAGO (STNG) - The CTA has cut 29 percent of its mechanics in the last 13 years, and the union claims those cuts mean unsafe buses are on the roads.

“There’s not enough people to do the job,” said Dan Hrycyk, financial secretary-treasurer for the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 241. Union representatives said buses are put into service with bad brakes and power-steering problems. “Buses that shouldn’t be going out…they will send out,” Hrycyk said.

But CTA management said the transit agency can get by with fewer mechanics because newer buses break down less frequently, and because the system of repairing buses has become more efficient and more focused on prevention. The CTA also denied unsafe buses are sent out.

“Our buses are breaking down less,” said CTA President Ron Huberman. “We’re just being smarter about how we do maintenance.”

The CTA is cutting another 29 mechanic positions in the 2009 budget, down to 462 spots, as part of the 600 jobs eliminated this year and next due to a budget shortfall. The agency is also hiking fares Jan. 1.

The CTA said it is working to be more efficient, through change such as retiring its older bus fleet and leasing new, fuel- sipping hybrid buses.

There were 946 1991-vintage buses in service last year, and that will be cut to zero by the end of this year, said Terrance J. Muellner, chief mechanical officer. Among the new buses are 22 60-foot articulated (accordion-style) hybrids -- another 128 will arrive by next summer.

Newer buses have automatic monitoring devices that tell mechanics what’s wrong with them, Muellner said -- which reduces the amount of manpower needed to diagnose problems.

Muellner said the average daily percentage of the bus fleet unavailable for service has fallen from 17 percent in September 2007 to 12 percent in October 2008.

That fall has been uneven, though -- going up to 15 percent during July and August after going down to 13 percent March through May.

The numbers also don’t show how many buses are sent out on trips when they should be held in the garage for repairs, according to Carlos J. Acevedo, maintenance-assistant business agent for the ATU.

“They’re literally putting Band-Aids on buses just to get them out the door -- get it out there to make money today so I can fix it tomorrow,” said Acevedo. “But tomorrow never comes.”

Union officials also complained that while the CTA has been cutting mechanic positions, it has been hiring managers, who make more money. In 2008, the CTA hired 20 new garage managers -- and of that number, only four had worked in the CTA maintenance department before, according to Acevedo.

“They’re flooding maintenance with managers that don’t know one end of the bus from the other,” said one bus mechanic, who has been with the CTA for more than 30 years.

Muellner said CTA’s garages have fewer supervisory positions than they had before 2004, when the foreman position was eliminated.

One area where the mechanics’ union and management agree is on the need for more training in order to work on the new hybrid buses. Muellner said the CTA is in the process of building a new $500,000 hybrid “school” to help mechanics learn the new hybrid systems.

But Hrycyk said managers are reluctant to send mechanics to training because they’re so short-handed.