Not only are Second Chancers punished at twice the severity of other ATU bargained-for employees, but they are not allowed to contest unjust writeups for sickness, tardiness, behavioral, procedural or safety violations.

This disgusting practice is based in a narrow and utterly ridiculous interpretation of Attachment O in the Collective Bargaining Agreement. 

Effective April 2, 2025, a Class Action Grievance I wrote will go to the CTA to change this unjust practice. Here is what I wrote:

The CTA must cease and desist refusing to honor grievance/arbitration rights about absenteeism, procedural, behavioral and safety violations by Second Chance Program (SCP) "Apprentices."

This practice is based in disparate treatment of resolving disputes regarding SCP Apprentices in Paragraph 8 of Attachment O in the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Moreover, its narrow interpretation even contradicts the flawed premise of the current practice. 

8. Apprentices shall be entitled to Union representation and will have  grievance rights with regard to issues relating to wages and discharge, provided that any  grievance over the discharge of an Apprentice shall be submitted to the Mediation-  Arbitration Program pursuant to Section 17.8 of the Agreement

As currently practiced, the CTA refuses to resolve disputes and grievances that are not about stolen wages or termination. This leads to frustration and no recourse for unjust writeups suffered by the SCP Apprentices. 

Any writeups for SCP Apprentices can negatively affect their prospects for Full-Time Permanent, other Full-Time Temporary or Part-Time Temporary CTA jobs. Therefore, this practice is totally unfair, unjust and violates the spirit of Articles 2.1 and 16. 

Moreover, the "issue relating to wages and discharge" is inherently tied to violations for absenteeism, procedural, behavioral and safety writeups. One cannot be discharged if one does not accumulate writeups for such violations.

In addition to the stopping of this unjust practice, All SCP Apprentices whose grievances were rejected by the CTA or union for arbitration or not must be made whole. Those who were discharged must be offered a non SCP Apprentice position.