Trade union leaders squared off in a verbal slugfest on Friday over a stalled proposal to require a Chicago crane operators license for any equipment able to lift over 1,000 pounds, half the current limit.
In one corner was Local 150 of the International Union of Operating Engineers, the powerhouse union that has made a $1 million commitment to mayoral challenger Jesus “Chuy” Garcia after bankrolling a poll that declared Garcia the frontrunner.
Marc Poulos, executive director of the labor management group for Local 150, portrayed the proposal to cut the weight requirement in half as a “safety” issue—not a jurisdictional dispute.
“It is not a matter of `if.’ It’s a matter of `when’ there is going to be a tragic accident with one of these smaller pieces of equipment,” Poulos told the City Council’s Committee on Workforce Development during Friday’s “subject matter hearing” where no final vote was taken.
“We’ve had a couple of instances locally and many around the nation. One was at Mercy Hospital when they were building that in Rockford. Another was more recently at Wolf Point. The Salesforce Tower where...these small pieces of equipment that are being tipped over.”
In the other corner were more than a dozen other unions who are vehemently opposed to the ordinance, calling it a “jurisdictional power grab” that will “steal” their members’ jobs.
“To have someone go out to Countryside for the city test where you’ve got to wait three months or four months. How are you gonna get this done? How is the city gonna get built? How are you not gonna cripple every single contractor in this city,” said Paul Wende of the Ironworkers Union.
“If you allow this to happen, you’re gonna cripple every single company in this city. You’re gonna slow down construction. And Chicago is already one of the hardest markets to compete in.”
Jim Gardiner of the Ironworkers District Council portrayed the bitter disagreement as a “classic jurisdictional dispute between labor unions.” City Council members don’t belong in the middle of it. It belongs before an arbitrator, he said.
“We’ve done our best to keep the ordinance buried in committee so the aldermen don’t have to vote and become an election target to be threatened or intimidated by the operators,” Gardiner said.
It’s a good thing for Local 150 that no final vote was taken. If there had been a roll call, the ordinance would surely have been voted down.
“This makes absolutely no sense...This is the wrong venue. You all need to get into a room and duke it out,” said retiring Ald. Leslie Hairston (5th).
“Most of us...do not have the expertise, the experience or the knowledge, and you have not provided it to us. You have not given us a good reason why it should be reduced to 1,000 pounds...It makes sense to leave it as it is and let you all figure it out.”
Retiring Ald. James Cappleman (46th) said he is a “strong proponent” of relying on “national and international safety standards”—and sticking with the 2,000-pound licensing requirement maintained by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
“It provides an additional layer of predictability and that helps with keeping building costs down. We all know the cost of buildings is going out of control,” Cappleman said.
“I lean towards relying on OSHA standards for the very same reasons—especially because I view them as the experts with requirements on the use of building cranes.”
At times during the two-hour slugfest, retiring Workforce Development Chair Susan Sadlowski Garza (10th) was forced to play the role of a referee. She cut the adversaries off to stop them shouting over each other and closed by agreeing with Hairston.
“We’ve been bombarded with, `Vote yes. Vote no. Don’t do this. Don’t do that.’…This is not our wheelhouse. We are not on job sites...This should not be something that City Council should decide. You need to get together and work toward the common goal,” she said.
“You have fifteen trades that are against this and one for it. That’s very telling to me. I’m hoping that you guys can work this out.”
