On August 29, the 2000 Teamsters who move the city of Chicago rejected a ten-year contract that would have put their future at risk. Now they are demanding Local 726 hold a meeting to hear what the members want fixed to protect their jobs.

"The Local 726 leadership agreed to terms that would put our jobs and seniority in jeopardy," said Vince Tenuto, a leader of the Fighting for the Future movement, which has informed and organized Local 726 about the contract and their rights as Teamsters.

"Master seniority would be weakened. And there is no protection against privatizing jobs. Ten years! We need job protection so in ten years, our jobs won't be gone." said Joe Vercillo.

Local 726 Teamsters work in sanitation, at Chicago's airports, and in electrical, water, sewer and transport departments. They do skilled and sometimes dangerous work, and provide critically important services for three million Chicagoans, and deserve a contract that provides them job security.

Other city unions have agreed to ten-year contracts that Mayor Richard Daley claims will deliver "labor peace" in the run up to the 2016 Olympics.

Fighting for the Future is a movement of Local 726 members who will nominate a slate in October to replace officials who have lost touch with working Teamsters.

You can learn more about this movement at www.fightingforthefurture.com.

Click here to see the Chicago Sun Times article on the contract rejection.