After four days of work stoppage, hundreds of parking garage employees across the Chicago area have successfully negotiated a tentative agreement on a new labor contract.
Teamsters Local 727 represents roughly 1,200 workers employed by 15 parking companies throughout the Chicago metropolitan area, encompassing parking facilities at O’Hare International Airport, Midway Airport, and Soldier Field.
The workers initiated their strike on Tuesday, alleging that the parking companies had failed to negotiate in good faith and had engaged in unfair labor practices.
The work stoppage was triggered after union members rejected the company’s most recent contract proposal on Monday, following the expiration of the previous agreement on Saturday.
On Friday afternoon, the union formally announced that it had reached a tentative agreement with the Chicago Parking Association, which represents 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 this new agreement protects bargaining unit work against emerging technologies, increases PTO, provides a new retiree benefit, and will provide the largest benefit and wage increases ever achieved by the Union in the parking industry,” Teamsters Local 727 secretary-treasurer John Coli Jr. said.
The union had previously cautioned that, had an agreement not been secured prior to Sunday evening’s Bears game, parking facilities at Soldier Field would have remained closed to attendees.
The tentative agreement is still subject to ratification by the union’s general membership before it can take full effect.
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