After a four-day strike, hundreds of parking workers in the Chicago area have reached a tentative agreement on a new collective bargaining contract. Teamsters Local 727 represents about 1,200 workers employed by 15 parking companies, including at lots and garages at O’Hare and Midway airports and at Soldier Field.
The workers began the strike Tuesday, accusing the parking companies of refusing to bargain in good faith and of engaging in unfair labor practices. The strike started after the union voted Monday to reject the company’s offer for a new contract. The previous contract expired Saturday.
On Friday afternoon, the union announced that it had reached a tentative agreement with the Chicago Parking Association, which represents the parking companies SP Plus/Metropolis, LAZ Parking, Interpark, ABM, Imperial/Reimagine Parking, Legacy Parking, ACE, Peoples Auto Park, Advance Parking, Metro Valet, Park Plus, Pioneer Parking, Vargas, Secure Parking and Windy City Parking Services.
“The terms of the new contract protect the workers covered by the negotiations from the effects of new technology, increase the number of vacation days, provide new retirement benefits, and include the largest increases in benefits and wages the union has ever negotiated in the parking industry,” said John Coli Jr., secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 727. The union said that if no agreement had been reached before the Bears game Sunday night, the parking lots at Soldier Field would have remained closed.
The tentative agreement must still be approved by union members.
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Source: Polski.FM
