Lemme know.
Yeah.
Wrap it up.
Little beat there. Good morning.
The Committee on Workforce Ava will now come to order today.
We have three items on the agenda.
First, the approval of September, um, rule 45, report.
Second is 0 2 0 2 5 dash 0 0 1 9 9 9 3.
A collective bargaining agreement
with Chicago Firefighters Union Local two.
And lastly, and I'll take this out of order,
a resolution on open kitchens.
We'll hold that as I'm happy to report that.
Uh, we have an agreement between Teamsters
and Open Kitchens at the appropriate time.
I'll take that outta order and,
and just officially hold that.
Uh, but before I begin, we will establish Quorum
and Alderman Yancy.
Alderman Yancy's, presence Alderman Hall. Alderman Beal.
Alderman Chico. Alderman Chico is present.
Alderwoman Ramirez. Alderwoman Ramirez is
President Alderman Quinn.
Alderman Quinn is present. Vice Chair Gutierrez.
Vice Gutierrez is present. You like that? Alderman Coleman.
Alderman Curtis. Send him your well wishes. Everyone.
He's not feeling so hot.
I'll tell you one-on-one afterwards if you like.
Chair Rodriguez is present. Alderman Alia Farrell.
Alderman Casada. Alderman Casada is present. Alderman Sdo.
Alderman Sdo is President person, Vasquez
and other woman Clays on the way.
That's eight. We have quorum.
Uh, online we have a couple of Rule 59, uh,
requests from Vasquez, Coleman, Ferro and Hall.
Uh, whoever requested to attend the meeting
by remote means due to unrelated emergencies, uh,
I believe I see Ferro present and Hall
Present. Thanks everybody.
I'll take a motion to approve their attendance
by Alder Casada.
All those in favor signify by saying aye.
Any opposed any opinion? The chairs, the ayes have it.
You'll be reflected in quorum. We're at 10 now.
Um, do we have any non committee members present? We do not.
Uh, at this time, we'll begin the public comment period.
The, the public comment period is 30 minutes.
Outta respect to everybody's time,
each speaker is limited to three minutes.
Keep that myself and oh, it's up there as well.
Okay, very good. Um, we'll go to George Blakemore.
Good morning. Reading the agenda.
It says, collective Bargain Agreement with the firefighter
firefighting union, the farmers.
Now for years, this racist union
dealing with black firefighters, black people had
to go all the way to DC and,
and, uh, to, to be recognized.
Racism is alive here with the firefighter Union.
They had to sue to get more black firefighter.
Sometimes black people forget where they came from
and they still think they have gotten over the racist
fire department.
The racist fire department.
And it's still racist today that
that lady say Mr.
Blakemore, that the lady, uh, over the fire department,
that commissioner Mr.
Blakemore prayed for me is still today
with this all Democrat
blue machine here.
And some of these blacks in high places are selling
people out.
The Notorious Fire Department, the most racist
of all these unions.
And the, the white farmers was fighting the black farmers.
It's something else here. And it hadn't changed.
It hasn't changed.
They had to sue whether the black men could become
firefighters and the whites would fight them at
the fire stations.
So racism is alive. And I was trying to go live on my phone.
Somebody is playing a game here, uh, with me
because I go live
where my Facebook friends could actually see
this mess down here.
But it says, look, yeah, I can't go live.
So let's show that I got power.
It's power in the written word.
It's power in the spoken word
and it's power with this internet,
somebody's blocking me, the haters.
So I'm here in living color, the racist
fire department, the race.
And it's still racist today,
even though you might have black lady,
that black lady in a high place.
But she knows we have not overcome the legacy
of slavery here in the city of Chicago
with our slave mentality.
Be, be, be. Yo time is out.
Next up is Jessica Jackson.
Great.
Good Ma'am,
You need to gimme my minute back
'cause I didn't start speaking.
Please be. But I understand Alderman Rodriguez,
because you want me off this mic?
You want me off the mic?
Desmond Yancy wants me off this mic.
That alderman, the one that was calling people n*****s,
he want me off the mic?
No, don't shake your head.
'cause what's pitiful is you being able to be a alderman
after you did such a thing.
And then you got the audacity
to be talking about some immigrant rights
and looking down when somebody's addressing you.
That's the reason why you all's plight don't have
no power to it.
You out there, you, Rodriguez, Vasquez, Jesse Fuentes.
And when you get dummies like Desmond Yancy
and Brandon Johnson out there pushing you all alone,
looking like a bunch of rebels without a cause
because your protests ain't even real
because you're not citizens.
You don't have no right to jobs,
to free resources coming over here, fighting
or government when, when you won't even fight your own.
Coming over here, burning our flags
when you won't go pledge your allegiance
to your own on your own.
So, so yeah, keep looking down, keep shaking your head
because what's pitiful is that people thought
that they should vote you into office.
But that's all right. 'cause we've been told y'all
we coming for them seats.
We coming for them seats.
Yancy, you think you gonna keep on jumping up South Shore?
Only thing we got to show for it over there with you
Greg Mitchell and Michelle Harris
is a bunch of illegals
that y'all done dumped into our apartments over there.
You won't stand up to fight for us at all.
You, you, you're passing a phony CBA bill
talking about those people can come back
that got this displaced in 2016.
They gonna come back to where
when you wouldn't even help me take care
of what's happening right now.
You are such a liar.
We coming for them seats.
You ain't gonna call nobody, no n***a and keep your seat
and y'all can look down
'cause you ain't got no guts to look at me in my face.
You bunch of losers. Look at you.
Look at, that's why you run from your country.
'cause you can't even face a person
that's talking to you right now.
You a bunch of rebels without a cause.
Don't nobody support you except
for the people paid protestors that y'all sending out there.
Next up is Dennis White.
This is a little education with a warning.
The education is this here.
All the aldermans that flew in their own home country flag.
I have not seen not one with the United States flag.
So here's, that's the education.
The education is when Jessica Fuentes was at that hospital,
confronted the ice agent
and got handcuffed, she staged that.
But what I don't understand is when everybody
get the protest from Elgin about Prospect
Carbondale everywhere, none of it's not from the south side
or the west side, but when something happens for blacks
and when we need something,
I haven't seen no Hispanic alderman,
no Hispanic resident.
If they legal have not help us fight with the cause.
You could shake your head all you want to, sir.
But you know it's true. You could shake
your head all you want to.
But here's the thing. Black people is not gonna get involved
with the problem that these Hispanic are dealing with ice
and the illegals with ice.
You think what happened on 75th is bad.
You have not seen nothing yet that what's going to be worse?
So be prepared. 'cause they always say there's a come
before the storm and you aldermans are sworn.
If y'all understand, you all swarm
to keep the citizens safe in your ward,
but crime is going up.
Brandon Johnson say crime is down, the crime rate is down.
JB PRIs could say crime rate is down. But guess what?
We experience it every day. That crime is not down at all.
It stay is going up, up and up.
And then what's going to happen when Brandon Johnson get
elected outta office?
What you going to do? You going
to hire Chewie Garcia to run for office?
He ain't having even make no policy
so far since he became Congress.
So here's the warning,
if you don't get it straight, we going to straighten.
We gonna show you how we going straighten out here in the
city of Chicago because we had enough.
And all of y'all over here looking at your cell phone
and stuff, looking at you, you looking at your
cell phone right now?
You are not gonna look at me straight in the eye and stuff,
but we going straighten it out.
You see there? And then Brandon Johnson over here sign a
ridiculous order of, uh, that ridiculous piece of paper
talking about IceFree Zone.
What is a ice free zone? He's a social study teacher.
He know that the federal government override
the local government.
So you going to have to do better
or if we gonna do it for you
because if any illegal harm, any women, children,
elderly, we going to take it upon ourselves
to use our second Amendment right And we're going
to exercise it on you all.
Shake your hair and see how many body one one
of your people got sending a body bag.
Remember two months ago I say bustle body bag.
I missed that. We're gonna move forward.
We're not gonna escalate this.
Uh, I will say that we're not gonna have someone threaten
someone with, with uh, a shooting.
Yeah. All right, we're gonna go ahead
with Thank you everyone.
Thank you. We're gonna go ahead with Patricia Puente.
Thank you. This is time.
Excuse me. Thank you. Let's let Ms. Puente. Yes. What?
This is my time. This is my time. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much gentlemen and ladies.
Um, my name is Patricia Puente.
I live, I don't live Jesus Lord.
Wait, um, I have a concern
of the building located, located at 63 0 1 Southwestern.
It's on the corner of 63rd and oh, thank you.
And Western. Um, I sent a picture.
The windows are broken.
My concern is that that building has,
has been, uh, abandoned.
I I, I know it hasn't been abandoned.
The owner lives in New York City.
I had to do a little bit of an investigation,
but the windows had been broken since five years.
Now my thing is, I've been coming, it's been a year already
and those windows are still broken.
I come 'cause you guys are, are helping,
uh, do good for this city.
But how hard is it to
tell whoever owns that building
to patch those windows?
People are walking on it. And I saw it with my own eyes.
An African American was walking
and the, the window fell on him.
He did not stop
'cause I think he was going to work or whatever.
He got on the bus right away. They told him, wait, wait.
You know, do you need help? He was
like, no, I gotta go to work.
Those windows, please.
On 63rd, 63 0 1 Southwestern, I did speak
with someone from Ward 16.
It's been six months
and the windows has are still there.
So what's the purpose of your position?
Having the position that you have,
if you guys are not doing anything about something
so simple, but you're making chaos, so everywhere else,
thank you very much and have a wonderful day.
Sorry. Next speaker is Patrick Cleary.
Good morning. Thank uh, I'd like to thank the committee
for allowing me to speak today.
My name's Patrick Cleary.
I'm the president of the Chicago Firefighters
Union, local number two.
And I'm here to, uh, let you know
that we negotiated with the city.
It took over four years.
We've been with without a contract for over four years.
We finally came to an agreement.
Uh, our executive board voted on it and approved it.
We sent it to our, uh, members of local two.
Close to 80% of our members voted.
And 73.1 voted in favor of ratifying the contract.
So I'm here asking you to today to ratify our contract.
It's been too long. It's been over four years.
By the time this thing takes effect,
it'll be four and a half years.
It's a fair contract. We fought hard with the city.
The city fought hard with us. We came to an agreement.
The job is done and I'm asking you to conclude this battle
and ratify our contract.
Thank you.
Thank you President. There being no further speakers.
We'll move on to our first order of business, the approval
of the Rule 45 report from September, 2025.
Every member of the committee should have
received a copy in their email.
Can I have a motion to approve the report from Spto?
So moved. All those in favor signify by saying aye.
Any opposed any opinion that chair, the ayes have it.
Uh, next up out of order,
I'll take item number three on the written agenda.
R 20 25 0 0 1 9 7 71.
Again, we're gonna hold that in committee
as there has been an agreement between the Teamsters Union
and the, um, entity that was referenced in the resolution.
So we will go to item, uh,
0 2 0 2 5 0 0 1 9 9 3.
A collective bargain agreement
with Chicago Firefighters Union Local two, uh,
today in the box and if you'd like to approach, please,
we have Chief Labor negotiator, Sicily Porter,
Benny Amino Capello from DHR,
and he also has a star witness with him as well.
Uh, Evan Ham from the Chicago Fire Department
and Chief Jamar Sullivan and Jim Franzi outside counsel.
We will, uh, before we get to questions, I believe, uh,
Jim Franek and Cicely Porter, um, will address us.
Good morning, chairman Rodriguez and committee members.
Again, I'm Cecily Porter Adams,
the city's chief labor negotiator,
and you've introduced my team,
the team here, and we thank you for that.
Um, we thank you for the opportunity
to discuss the proposed collective bargaining agreement
between the City of Chicago and Chicago Firefighters Union.
Local two. Local two represents a approximately 4,800
employees, all of whom who are employed
by the Chicago Fire Department.
We believe after four years of negotiation
to get this result, we believe
that this is the best deal possible for the city of Chicago
and the employees who are covered by this agreement.
Based on the terms set forth that I'm gonna set for fourth
below, first the term of the agreement,
it runs from July 1st, 2021 through June 30th, 2022,
to be effective upon final ratification
by this body and the bargaining unit.
The bargaining unit has ratified the agreement.
So, uh, the next step would be
for city council's ratification.
With respect to wages, the employees will receive a range
between 21 and 25% over the life of the ccp.
CBA, depending on CPIU and is broken down as follows.
Effective 1 1 22, it'll be a 2.5% increase
and the same is true for 1 1 23.
A 2.5% increase effective 1 1 24 a 5% increase.
And the same is true for, uh, 1 1 25.
Another 5% increase for 1 1 26.
The increase was arranged between three
and 5% depending on CPIU.
And the CPIU indicates that
that will be a 3% increase the last year of the contract.
1 1 27, it will be a three a range between three
and 5%, again, depending on CPIU.
Other terms in compensation, and I'm sorry, I wanna back up
and say those are the terms that are,
those wages are identical to those that were approved by
for the Chicago John Janine Lodge, FOP.
Um, additionally, we are providing a signing bonus
and the amount of 2,500, uh, to be paid the first quarter
of 2026, the same bonus that was
provided to our other sworn unions of for uniform allowance
and duty availability allowances, they will be increased
by a hundred dollars per year for the uniform
and for the duty availability, $50 per quarter
effective 1 1 27, the insurance salary cap will be increased
to $130,000.
We made, um, salary adjustments for employees
who have their EMTB license
and with respect to those
who have A-E-M-T-P license effective upon ratification,
all new classes of dual roll crossovers will have to
maintain their EMTP licenses for 10 years
and they will receive, those employees will receive a 10%
incentive for doing so.
This is up for under the last contract.
It was for seven years and 8.5%.
Uh, we did make revisions to the disciplinary process
to ensure disputes are resolved more efficiently
by requiring lower level discipline to go
through a binding summary opinion process
and more significant discipline to be heard
by an arbitrator within 90 days of appointment.
We also developed a summary punishment process
that is very similar to CPDs,
whereby less serious transgressions receiving minor
penalties are not subject to challenge
for the disciplinary process.
Uh, we spent a good deal of time
revising the promotional process.
A a couple of things we did in that space was we attempted
to make the process more transparent, uh,
by setting forth the source materials for the written exams
as well as the prerequisites
and agreeing to provide copies of the answer sheets
and the preliminary answer keys at the conclusion
of the written exam and the written
competency based assessments.
Uh, we will provide training prior
to each promotional order based on
seniority for the engineers.
We're eliminating the promotional exam
and we'll use a certification process based on seniority.
We also, um, modified Appendix G to make it consistent
with legal requirements with a focus on, um, opportunities
for Chicago residents
of socioeconomically disadvantaged areas.
And that is with respect to, uh, recruiting and hiring.
Uh, with respect to promotions, we're including goals
of eliminating obstacles unrelated to the job
that may hinder including members
of historically underrepresented communities.
Uh, we also, um, state, you know, uh, uh,
made consistent across all of our bargaining units, some
of the BEN benefits, such as moving the pay dates so
that all of our employees will be paid at the same time,
requiring payments to be made through direct deposit
and green slips, establishing a timeframe to make payments,
uh, based on settlements and also extending juneteenth
and the paid parental benefits.
Um, we are very thankful for the opportunity to present
and if you have any questions,
we are happy to answer at this time. Thank you.
Okay. Um, we'll go to questions from committee members.
See no hands.
Alderman Boto. Thank you.
Thank you, chairman. Thank you very much.
Uh, um, I never know what the address you as,
as a commissioner or director or whatever,
or friend, you know, so, but good job friend is fine.
Um, I just have a couple comments.
Uh, first of all, congratulations chief,
you're number one on that chief test.
I dunno if I ever told you that.
So that's a big accomplishment.
Uh, appreciate that. Thank you very much. Congratulations.
And, uh, a question for Jim.
I'm just guessing this is your last contract. You know,
I'll, I'll answer.
I think Local two is gonna be glad you're gone, you know,
so in a loving way, not in a derogatory or negative way,
but I know you're a a tough negotiator.
I know you've kind of been fair. I know they
have a great deal of respect for you.
So I just wanna say, uh, I dunno
how much longer we're gonna be seeing you around.
So just, uh, good job.
And I know it was a, a long haul and a tough one.
And, uh, just appreciate all you've done
throughout the years for the city.
And of course, you know, you're, you're a tough negotiator.
Even way back to Fabrizio, have high,
had high AC accolades for you.
So I just wanna say everybody, I hopefully my colleagues,
uh, uh, support this.
It's a no-brainer. And, um, that's about it.
Thank you, chairman.
Okay. Uh, seeing no further hands, can I get a motion
to approve by Alder Gutierrez
and Alderman, uh, Quinn.
Um, all those in favor signify by saying aye.
Any opposed in the opinion of the chair?
The Have it. Thank you.
Now letter.
I'll report this. Vote as a recommendation
to pass at the next city council meeting.
With there being no further business
before the committee can have a motion to adjourn.
Alder casada moves, hearing no objections.
So order the, the Committee
of Workforce Development is now adjourned.
I like that. Right?