Wednesday · July 21 2004
O'Hare executives will be custodians for a day
Beginning this week, anyone with an assistant commissioner title or above will spend an eight-hour shift mopping bathroom floors, emptying trash cans, washing sinks and cleaning toilets. Many of the approximately 20 executives on the hook, including Roberson, make more than $100,000 a year.
It's a goofy management stunt, but it can't hurt to build a little empathy. The regular custodians will not get to be executive for a day.
Okay, Jason - you couldn't have expected me to pass this one up!
Janitors at O'Hare work according to this screwy system. Those who work "on the tile" -- the common areas -- work for the city and get paid halfway decently ($13 an hour, family health insurance, pension). Janitors "on the carpet" -- that is, the gate areas -- are hired by the airlines, broken up into little tiny cutthroat contracts that drive bidding into the basement, and make closer to $6 an hour, no benefits. Contractors are always walking away because even they can't make a dime. The city says the group "on the carpet" isn't its problem . . .
So yeah, I guess it's nice that execs have to trade in their suits for a scrub brush for a day. But the real grind is doing it every day. And as for the smelly bathrooms - you get what you pay for. The city seldom fills open slots, so as the airport gets bigger and busier, the number of janitors cleaning it shrinks. Now, with the jobs privatized, it just gets to play blame the contractor.
Screed over.