In August 2019, the Chicago Transit Authority Board (CTA) passed the Contracting Careers Opportunity Policy Ordinance instructing CTA staff to create and implement a good jobs policy to apply to the agency’s contracts. The Ordinance specifically calls on CTA to implement a standing USEP, which will ensure CTA’s public purchasing creates good jobs and advances equity.
CTA will be the second transit agency nationally and the largest agency to apply our signature good jobs policy, the USEP, to its major procurements.
CTA has applied the USEP to two major procurements: first a $1.3 billion dollar contract (their largest ever railcar procurement) and second a 600 bus Request for Proposals (RFP). In the first application of the USEP, the contractor committed to building a new facility on the SE side of Chicago (creating 200 construction jobs) and committed to employing at least 170 jobs when the facility is at full production in 2021. In order to fulfill its USEP commitments, the company signed a Community Benefits Agreement with our coalition in Illinois to establish a jobs pipeline that includes a pre-apprenticeship program, union certification, and hires people of color and women for these good manufacturing jobs.