Members of Teamsters Local 700 ratified a new contract with the Forest Preserve District of Cook County on September 2, 2026, ending a 16-day strike by approximately 230 truck drivers, laborers, mechanics, and resource technicians. The agreement includes higher wages, paid lunch breaks, overtime pay for sixth and seventh consecutive days worked, and new seniority-based bidding language for shift assignments. The strike was the first in the local’s history.
Key Takeaways
- Approximately 230 Teamsters Local 700 members walked off the job on August 17, 2026, after rejecting the Forest Preserve District’s “last, best, and final offer” twice, first in late 2025 and again in July 2026.
- The ratified contract includes a succession of raises, one-time payments for full-time and seasonal employees, paid lunch and breaks, overtime pay for sixth and seventh days worked, and seniority-based bidding procedures for shift assignments and weekend work reduction.
- The union’s central grievance was a pay scale that advanced non-union forest preserve employees through their salary steps at roughly 10 times the rate of Teamster-represented workers.
- The wage scale itself was not restructured in the new agreement. The contract expires December 31, 2027, and management has agreed to begin bargaining the next agreement as early as January.
- Six other unions at the forest preserves had already accepted similar or identical terms to the district’s original offer. Teamsters Local 700 was the only unit to reject it and strike.
The Pay Scale Gap Drove the Dispute
The contract between Teamsters Local 700 and the Forest Preserve District of Cook County expired at the end of December 2025. The district’s initial offer included an 8 percent pay increase spread across two years: 2 percent retroactive to January 2026, another 2 percent starting July 2026, and 4 percent in July 2027. The package also included a $2,500 one-time payment for full-time employees and $1,250 for seasonal staff, a paid half-hour lunch, and expanded overtime rules. Six other unions representing forest preserve workers accepted those terms or similar versions.
Teamsters Local 700 rejected the offer twice. The issue was not the percentage raise itself but the underlying pay scale. Local 700 Vice President Anthony McGee described the disparity in structural terms: Teamsters members’ wages increased by less than three-quarters of a percent on average at each step in their pay progression, while non-union employees at the same agency received approximately 5 percent per step. That gap had compounded over decades, leaving the Teamster-represented workforce earning significantly less than workers in comparable positions at the Cook County Department of Transportation and Highways, the Chicago Park District, the City of Chicago, the Illinois Tollway, and the Illinois Department of Transportation.
Teamsters Local 700 President Ramon Williams framed the imbalance in direct terms before the strike began. The district, Williams said, advanced non-union staff through its pay scale at 10 times the rate of its Teamster-represented employees while simultaneously contracting out work that fell within the bargaining unit’s scope. The combination of stagnant step progression and outsourced labor formed the basis for the union’s decision to reject two offers and walk out.
The 16-Day Strike Was a First for Teamsters Local 700
The strike began on August 17, 2026, after members authorized the action on July 30 by an overwhelming margin. The walkout put approximately 230 workers on the picket line, including certified arborists, truck drivers, laborers, and mechanics responsible for road clearing, trail maintenance, equipment upkeep, trash collection, and prescribed burns across the Cook County forest preserve system. Roughly 40 to 60 of the striking workers were seasonal employees; the remainder were full-time.
The Forest Preserve District kept all trails, picnic groves, campgrounds, nature centers, and golf courses open throughout the strike. General Superintendent Adam Bianchi said the district recognized the value of Local 700’s workforce but was operating within fiscal constraints. The district’s position was that its compensation package remained competitive within the broader labor market. The union’s position was that the district’s own internal comparisons told a different story.
The strike drew support from outside the bargaining unit. Chicago DSA’s Labor Branch organized picket line visits, and Teamsters for a Democratic Union highlighted the dispute as part of a broader pattern of public-sector labor activity in the Chicago region. The walkout ran through rain and late-summer heat across 16 days before ending with a ratification vote on September 2.
What the New Contract Includes and What It Leaves Unresolved
The ratified agreement delivered gains on several of the issues that drove the strike. The contract includes a succession of wage increases, though the union did not disclose specific percentages beyond what the district had originally proposed. One-time payments for full-time and seasonal employees were retained. Paid lunch breaks and rest periods, which non-union staff already received, were formalized for the Teamster-represented workforce. Overtime pay now applies to sixth and seventh consecutive days worked. New bidding language requires the district to honor seniority in shift assignment decisions, and scheduling procedures were revised to reduce mandatory weekend work and improve advance notification.
What the contract did not deliver was a restructuring of the wage scale. The step-rate disparity between union and non-union employees, the issue that Local 700 identified as its central demand before and during the strike, remains in place. Members acknowledged the gap publicly in statements following ratification.
David Yokley, a laborer, described the outcome as a partial victory. The contract secured meaningful improvements on working conditions, but the wage scale still falls short of what non-union forest preserve workers and comparable public-sector employees elsewhere in Cook County earn. The new agreement expires December 31, 2027, and management has agreed to begin bargaining the successor contract as early as January. Local 700 members have described that timeline as the window in which the wage scale fight will resume.
The Strike Fit into a Broader Wave of Chicago Labor Activity
The Forest Preserve Teamsters’ walkout was not an isolated event. The strike’s 16-day duration overlapped with a period of elevated labor activity across the Chicago region. Hotel workers and nurses in the city were also engaged in strike actions reported over the Labor Day holiday weekend. The Chicago Labor Day Parade returned on September 5 to the East Side neighborhood on the Southeast Side for the first time since 2022, drawing union members, retirees, and labor advocates to South Ewing Avenue in a march that included dozens of unions.
The parade’s return to the East Side, a historically industrial and union-dense neighborhood, carried symbolic weight during a week that also saw the Teamsters ratify their forest preserve contract and multiple other labor actions reach public visibility. Members of Local 700 formed a rank-and-file member action committee during the strike that the local has now agreed to formalize as a permanent organizing structure heading into the 2027 contract cycle. Brannon Curtis-Wittenberg, a senior resource technician, said the committee built relationships across all four forest preserve departments and that the local now sees it as a model for how to prepare for the next round of bargaining.
FAQs
How Long Did the Forest Preserve Teamsters Strike Last?
The strike lasted 16 days, from August 17 through September 2, 2026, when Teamsters Local 700 members ratified a new contract with the Forest Preserve District of Cook County. It was the first strike in the local’s history.
What Did the New Contract Include?
The agreement includes higher wages through a succession of raises, one-time payments for full-time and seasonal employees, paid lunch breaks, overtime pay for sixth and seventh consecutive days worked, new seniority-based bidding for shift assignments, and scheduling changes to reduce mandatory weekend work.
Was the Wage Scale Restructured?
No. The underlying pay scale, which advances non-union employees through salary steps at roughly 10 times the rate of Teamster-represented workers, was not changed in this contract. The union has identified wage scale reform as its priority for the next bargaining cycle, which management has agreed to begin as early as January 2027.
Were the Forest Preserves Closed During the Strike?
No. The Forest Preserve District of Cook County kept all trails, picnic groves, nature centers, campgrounds, and golf courses open to the public throughout the 16-day strike.
