Chicago Transit Board amends fund to aid CTA families affected by virus

The Chicago Transit Board (CTB) earlier this week approved a measure that allows the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) to add funding to CTA employee welfare funds to help families pay for funerals of CTA employees who die from COVID-19.

The CTB established the CTA employee welfare fund in 1949 to support employees during times of financial hardship and assists with employee-driven initiatives. 

The new measure allows CTA and third parties to add monies to the fund to help cover funeral expenses for CTA employees who die from the coronavirus, and who have no other death benefit.

For example, if a part-time employee died with no life insurance, that employee’s family would be eligible for the equivalent of a year’s pay and/or possibly funeral expenses — the same benefit provided to full-time workers.

“I believe the most honorable thing we can do is to support our employees and their families during this pandemic,” CTA President Dorval Carter Jr. said in a press release.