Chicago Park District employees have reached a tentative contract agreement, averting a strike as the Chicago Teachers Union is expected to walk out Thursday.
“We have achieved, what we think, is a great victory,” said Service Employees International Union Local 73 Executive Vice President Jeffrey Howard.
Howard declined to discuss terms of the deal, which he said was unanimously approved by the bargaining team. He said the agreement includes “significant raises and benefits,” especially for part-time workers.
The deal, Howard added, “makes significant progress to make sure that all park jobs are jobs where workers can earn family-sustaining wages.”
SEIU 73 represents over 2,500 park district landscape laborers, special recreation workers, attendants, instructors, recreational leaders, supervisors and other workers from over 250 parks.
One of the key issues in the negotiations was health care costs. The union contended the district wanted employees to pay twice what they pay now.
The Chicago Park District did not respond to a request for comment on the agreement Wednesday afternoon.
A work stoppage, the park district previously said, would have drastically scaled back the resources available to Chicago Public Schools parents during the last CTU strike in 2012.
Though the park district employees contract has been settled, SEIU 73 is still in negotiations with Chicago Public Schools on behalf of about 7,000 CPS staff employees. Those contract talks were ongoing as of Wednesday afternoon, Howard said.
“We stand united with the teachers and the public schools staff who are taking action for the fight for good jobs that our communities need,” he said. “This is the power of unions.
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