CTA Tattler

The proliferation of CTA managers

One of our readers was wondering whether management hadn’t grown under CTA President Frank Kruesi – he claims it has grown from “700 desk jobs to just shy of 1500…. On a personal note, I know two people that work in the Howard yard, both say they have at least three bosses telling them what to do.”

“On a side note, I was told that many of the people laid off by the City in the last few years where "transferred" to the CTA in good ol' 11th Ward style politics. So I know why the CTA itself doesn't want to talk about layoffs. But still, why aren't the riders mentioning?”

So I asked the CTA Insider about this. His/her response:

The increase was stated as a 117% increase in administrative positions. This is true and they have been coming our way for the past 6 years. I had a buddy whose sister was in the Mart in personnel, and she told the story of this woman coming from the city and then stating her job was to get rid of anyone who didn't have a "Chinaman" who had the clout of her own guy.

There's at least 7 people I have seen come from city departments into the CTA  (with no knowledge of transportation at all). I wondered myself why the kibosh was put on any follow-up to this story. IT'S ALL POLITICS! The 3 bosses per guy is true, there's an administrative manager, customer assistance manager, transportation manager, general manager, special operations manager, special events manager and my all-time favorite...MANAGER AT LARGE!

These all have no interaction with the public and are not front-line employees. (Many have received info that they may be let go.)