Striking Cook County Forest Preserves maintenance, conservation and programming workers reached a deal with management Wednesday, ending a more than two-week walkout just before the busy Labor Day weekend, officials announced.
The deal will not deliver the workers better wage scales, which the union identified as one of its main issues prompting the strike.
It was the first strike of the 230-member Teamsters Local 700 unit representing employees who clear roads, maintain equipment and trails, clean buildings and empty trash cans across the Forest Preserves District’s more than 70,000 acres. The strike lasted 16 days starting on Aug. 17, and picket lines frequently cut through and around the County Building downtown and Forest Preserves headquarters.
“Our members did not want a strike, they wanted to be treated like the skilled public employees they are,” Local 700 President Ramon Williams said in a release. “They held the line for 16 days in the rain and the heat, demanding a fair contract and respect on the job. This agreement makes significant gains on wages and working conditions, and we will now move forward at the Forest Preserves.”
The agreement includes “higher wages, better scheduling procedures, improved paid lunch and overtime pay” and lasts through the end of 2027, the release said.
The framework of the Forest Preserves management’s last offer before the strike announcement is largely in place, both sides said late Wednesday: The union will receive a total of 8% raises over two years, a $2,500 one-time payment for full-time workers and $1,250 for seasonal staff, and paid lunch and breaks.
On top of it, union Vice President Anthony McGee said the union also won a provision cutting weekend responsibilities in half for workers in resource management, shift selection for landscape maintenance employees based on seniority and full retroactive pay for seasonal employees. Those who work six or seven days in a row will also be entitled to overtime.
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When the strike began, the district claimed offering the union more would require raising public fees, cutting services or restoration work, or trying to raise property taxes via referendum. In a release, Forest Preserves General Superintendent Adam Bianchi said the final agreement “addresses issues raised by Local 700 while allowing the Forest Preserves to remain on a sustainable fiscal path. We are eager to have all our dedicated employees together again to meet our shared mission.”
Throughout negotiations, the two sides were split over the unit’s pay scale. Williams said in a late July release that other county employees advance “10 times faster than the people doing the hardest, dirtiest, most essential work out in the preserves.”
Between the first and second year of employment, for example, an office secretary would see a salary increase of nearly 5%, while laborers at the Forest Preserves would get 0.5%. The new contract does not change the scale, McGee confirmed Wednesday.
McGee told the Tribune the union plans to bring up the step increases when the next round of bargaining begins in 2027. The 16-day walk-off “was absolutely worth it. I think the Forest Preserves, by way of giving in on so many critical issues, understands that the members are a force to be reckoned with and are going to be compelled to deal with this wage scale issue in the future.”
The strike showed “this issue will be brought up again and again and again until a resolution is met, and that the workers aren’t afraid to walk off the job,” McGee said.
The district stayed open during the strike, which has so far been the biggest labor flare-up under Bianchi, who took the job last year. Workers will be back Thursday.