From The Chicago Daily Law Bulletin – CTA Broke CBA, must pay $7.3M
On December 6, the Cook County Circuit Court in Illinois denied the Chicago Transit Authority’s (CTA) request to vacate Arbitrator Raymond McAlpin’s arbitration award, which found that the CTA had overworked some part-time bus drivers beyond the contractual maximum of 32 hours per week. McAlpin had ordered the CTA to pay the equivalent of 236,430.9 hours in compensation to the affected part-time and full-time drivers for work hours they were denied. The union estimated that this will cost the CTA $7.3 million. In upholding the arbitration award, the court used well-established standards for judicial review of arbitration awards, finding that the award drew from the essence of the applicable collective bargaining agreement.