Unions Rules Help Overpay Government Workers in Chicago

The Chicago Sun-Times explains some rules on how the city of Chicago's workforce cleans up:

If an AFSCME employee gets called in for overtime and only works one hour, he or she has to be paid for four hours. A member of the building trades in a similar call out is paid for just two hours.

Laborers assigned to refuse collection get time-and-a-half for the first 2 1/2 hours of overtime, then double-time for every hour after that.

And barring an emergency, the city is prohibited from reassigning employees based on need without giving them 14 days’ notice. So, if Water Management is shorthanded at the North District and overstaffed at the South District, it can only ask for volunteers.

Chicago Federation of Labor President Jorge Ramirez and Lou Phillips, business manager for Laborer Local 1001, could not be reached for comment.

For a "history" of Local 1001 click on this.