COMPUTER KIOSKS TO REPLACE GREETERS AT O’HARE

COMPUTER KIOSKS TO REPLACE GREETERS AT O’HARE The news on Tuesday that fifty new tourism kiosks will be installed throughout O’Hare to replace 29 airport customer service representatives who had translated and answered questions for passengers for decades was not what the REAL news was to me. The REAL news to me was that the city had been paying annual salaries of between $38,000 and $58,000 to 29 people who had what seemed like pretty cushy jobs to me! With benefits these “greeters” were costing the city about $2 million a year!! And they have been around for DECADES!! Do the math on those numbers! I have been traveling in and out of O’Hare for decades and have never once been “greeted” by anyone---unless you count the Hare Krishnas who used to sell flowers in the lobbies. In speaking about the new kiosks Daley said at a news conference at the airport, “Technology has really changed that. This gives more information than any people can have. You can get more information off this system than any one individual could have at O'Hare Field." Mayor Daley’s statement would make it seem like the City of Chicago had never thought about having information kiosks before and that the technology did not exist until now to have them. WRONG, MR. MAYOR!! Approximately 15 years ago, the Department of General Services of the City of Chicago created and installed computer kiosks in public libraries, City Hall, schools, public buildings etc. The kiosks provided users with information about city services, museums, parks & recreation etc. The kiosks were called, "FOR YOU CHICAGO." The kiosks disappeared and no one knows whatever happened to them. My friends who worked at General Services back then, said today they just “went away.” Obviously the new tourism kiosks will be using technology that did not exist 15 years ago, but the idea of kiosks to provide information did. So the City of Chicago could have saved about $20 million in salaries if the O’Hare customer service reps had been replaced back then with kiosks. Why weren’t they replaced? Maybe Al Sanchez needed more city workers on the payroll to do his bidding.