July 12, 2025
Dear Members and Chicago Residents,
Late Thursday afternoon I received an email from the City of Chicago, specifically Labor Relations, saying they were going to raise the lifting requirement for our entry level General Laborer titles in both Streets and Sanitation and Aviation. This was a total surprise to me and frankly is very suspicious since the posting for those positions was supposed to be coming out any day now. The current lifting requirement to be hired, 75 lbs. has been in place since the inception of the General Laborer position in 2012. This requirement is not simply lifting that weight but to successfully pass the physical one must lift the weight, walk approximately 25 feet or so, put the weight down, lift it again, walk back the 25 feet and place it back down. Not at all easy with 75 lbs. and to be honest in a Laborers career in either of these Departments it is rare if ever you may be required to lift and carry anything close to the current 75 lbs.. Yet the City of Chicago NOW wants to increase the weight limit to 100 lbs., so let me tell you why.
In 2024 in conjunction with our Union, LiUNA Local 1001, and the City of Chicago, we began a program for graduating CPS High School Seniors to give them the opportunity to not only get a summer job but the give them the right to bid on full time Union Laborer jobs with the City of Chicago. Jobs that we have seen change lives of not only the High School Seniors but their families as well. WE, Local 1001 went to the City with this idea back in July of 2023, well before the actual implementation of the program, in the hopes of repeating the success of a program the Union and the City partnered on back in 1996 before the Democratic National Convention.
This year’s response from the CPS Seniors was overwhelming, there were only 100 spots to fill and there were hundreds of applicants. The students had heard from last year’s participants how over 50 of them had progressed from being summer program employees into a full time good paying Union job, with health care, pension, paid vacation, paid holidays and all of the other Union job benefits. In fact, the media covered Mayor Johnson’s appearance in June of 2024, at the Laborers Training Center where the students receive two weeks of training, to brag about his commitment to work with the Union to create good paying Union jobs for minority young men and women. And this year it was the same narrative throughout the entire recruitment process which began in March. The students were told they would be given the same opportunity to bid and receive City jobs as Union General Laborers.
The problem is, there are few if any jobs as General Laborers jobs that will be available.
So now let’s go back to the reason for changing the lifting requirement for the General Laborer position. Since these Laborer Trainees, CPS Students, are Union Bargaining Unit members they have bidders rights, which gives them preference to be hired into our Union’s positions.
So how does the Mayor and the City of Chicago STOP these young men and women from getting what few if any positions become available in the next several weeks and save face when it comes to not hiring them into jobs they were told over and over again, they would have a chance to move into?
EASY, raise the lifting requirement so high that few if any can pass. Remember these are barely 18 yr. olds. Some may barely weigh 100 lbs. let alone be able to lift and carry that much. And again, let me stress this, they will never have to lift and carry that much weight if they work in a Laborer’s position for the next 30 years.
I currently proudly represent close to 1,900 members who work for the City of Chicago, a vast majority who are hard working black and brown residents of the City of Chicago, of which over 400 are females. Raising that lifting requirement will directly affect them and all future hires whether they are Laborer Trainees or not. Asking someone to perform a task that they will never do to receive a job is just a run around by this Administration to prevent hiring the same people that they preach every day they are trying to help.
I am proud of all of our members who are out there every day in the heat, rain, cold, and snow, keeping our City the showpiece it is, but to make a change such as this to HIDE the real truth is insulting to the Laborer Trainees, their families and frankly every member of LiUNA Laborers’ Local 1001.
So far no one from any City Department has responded to my inquiry about this, including the Mayor’s Office, Human Resources and the Inspector General.
Mayor Johnson, here is my message to you, it’s very simple, DO THE RIGHT THING!
Bob Chianelli
Business Manager. LiUNA Local 1001
