Illinois Tollway

Know Your Loudermill Rights

by Terri Barnett, SEIU Local 73 Representative

     Most public employees have a constitutional right to a pre-termination “hearing.”
     In another decision announcing a Constitutional right for public employees not possessed by private employees, the Supreme Court in Cleveland Board of Education v. Loudermill, 470 US 532 Ed 2d 494 (1985) held that most public employees are entitled to a hearing before they are discharged.
     However, the “hearing” is not a full evidentiary hearing and need not include the opportunity to cross examine your accuser(s).  All that is required is:

1. Oral or written notice of the charges and time for hearing;
2. An explanation of the employer’s evidence;
3. An opportunity to present “his or her side of the story.”

     Further, since the issuance of the Loudermill decision, the lower courts have strictly limited the remedy for Loudermill violations.
     Specifically, an employee deprived of his/her Loudermill rights is not entitled to reinstatement if the employer can prove that there was just cause for the discharge in any case.
     I strongly recommend to all Union members that if you are sent a certified letter or requested by ISTHA Managerial staff that you need to fill out a Loudermill report, please notify your Union representative, Committee Person and/or Steward immediately! 
     In addition, if ISTHA Managerial staff gives you an order to write a “Tour of Duty” about an employee, co-worker, or a given situation, again please contact your Representative, Committee Person, and/or Steward immediately!
     Have you ever known a time that a “Tour of Duty” has not brought any disciplinary action to yourself or to someone else?  If you do, please let me know, I am very interested to hear about it.

In solidarity,
Terri

 

Fight for Pension Justice on the Tollway Continues

    ISTHA Toll Collectors, Money Room Truck Drivers, and other Tollway classifications who actually work on the road fought hard to pass HB1702 through the Senate. The bill provides the alternative formula (2.5% per year of service) to Tollway workers who work in the most dangerous place on the highway - the Tollbooth. This has been confirmed by the National Transportation Safety Board who did a study of which jobs face the most danger on the road. The bill did not pass the House.

Alternative Formula Pension Justice

October 2008 Update

         Thanks to the work of our members and Local 73's legislative staffers, we are much closer to the alternative formula than we have ever been in all the years we've been fighting for pension justice. On May 20, HB 1702 easily passed the Senate with 42 out of 59 votes. Since then, HB 1702 has been bottled up in committee in the House. Our campaign to bring this bill onto the floor and pass it in the fall veto session is moving along. We now have firm pledges of support to the bill from 30 State Representatives, and we're still working hard to collect enough signatures to get the bill our of committee during the veto session in November after the elections.     

2008-2009 Bargaining Team

October 2008 Update

    The team has met with the stewards to get their input in developing our proposals. The Union hasn't yet recieved answers to our request for information from the road management that we need in order to bargain effectively for our members. No dates for bargaining have been set yet.     

Record Raises Reported for Tollway Executives

October 2008 Update

         On September 18, 2008, the Chicago Sun Times reported that in the past three years ISTHA's top brass got some outrageously fat pay increases at the same time that our economy took a dive and toll revenues remained the same. Raises ranged frm a whopping 93% over three years for the Chief of Operations to 58% for the Executive Director and Chief Engineer. The number of people making over $100,000 a year more than doubled, from 15 in 2006 to 38 this year.