Members of Teamsters Local 700 at the Cook County Forest Preserves ratified a new contract today after striking for over 2 weeks.
Key wins in the new contract include paid lunch breaks, overtime pay for sixth and seventh days worked, and new bidding language forcing the employer to honor seniority.
“This has been a long fight. We rejected multiple substandard offers and we made history by becoming the first group to ever strike in our local's history,” said Donnie Taylor, a Laborer.
“Management told us they had nothing more to give. But we didn’t cave. We voted to reject bad contract offers, organized a credible strike threat, and ultimately went on strike. At every step, management somehow found more to offer, including in this contract,” said Danay Barrera, a Resource Technician.
One key issue that was not settled in this agreement was changes to the wage scale.
“We won some good things in this contract, but we didn’t win one of our biggest demands. Our wage scale still falls short of what nonunion forest preserves workers and other similar public sector workers get,” said David Yokley, a Laborer.
Preparing for 2027
The new agreement expires at the end of 2027. Management has agreed to start bargaining the next agreement as soon as January.
“We’re putting management on notice–next year we are coming for our wages. We will continue to organize and mobilize and strengthen our group. We will be ready to fight and win what we deserve,” Yokley said.
Members are already gearing up for next year’s fight and are ready to apply the lessons they learned to take on management.
“We formed a member action committee as an independent group of rank-and-file members to build unity and get organized,” said Brannon Curtis-Wittenberg, a Senior Resource Technician.
“We stood shoulder-to-shoulder in this fight and built relationships with members of all four departments who we normally would never have come in contact with,” said Taylor.
“Now, our local has seen the value of our committee and has agreed to have a member action committee to bring the fight to management for the next contract,” Curtis-Wittenberg said.