Nearly 200 Teamsters Local 700 members walked off the job at the Forest Preserve District of Cook County on Monday after months of failed contract talks, launching a strike that pits maintenance staff, truck drivers and mechanics against district management over pay parity, lunch breaks and overtime during controlled burns. The district says preserves, golf courses and other facilities remain open despite the walkout.
The union voted last month to authorize the strike, and members formally rejected the district's latest contract offer in July, according to WTTW News. Illinois law required Local 700 to file a five-day written notice before striking, a statutory waiting period for non-essential public sector unions under the Illinois Public Labor Relations Act, as detailed by Patch. Local 700's contract with the district had expired at the end of December 2025, leaving members without a new agreement for months before the walkout began.
What Workers Say They're Owed
Union members say the fight centers on more than just raises. According to the union, workers currently have break time deducted from their pay when they skip breaks during prescribed fire burns, while contract talks have also focused on overtime compensation and the fact that union pay raises don't have parity with non-union staff. Non-union district staff receive a full one-hour paid lunch, while the district's offer to union employees was a paid half-hour lunch, per the union's account relayed by the station.
Ramon Williams, speaking for the union, said the district advances non-union staff faster than workers in the preserves. Workers are also scheduled for stretches of seven to 12 consecutive days without overtime compensation, according to the union. Local 700 members perform physically demanding seasonal work, including road plowing in winter and prescribed fire burns, and the union says the district's broader overtime pay rules offer haven't resolved those scheduling gaps.
The District's Counteroffer
District officials have pushed back on the union's framing of the offer. Adam Bianchi, representing the district, said the forest preserves offered a compensation package at or above competitive labor-market levels. The district's proposal included a 2% raise in January, another 2% raise in July, and a planned 4% raise in July 2027, along with one-time payments of $2,500 for full-time employees and $1,250 for seasonal staff.
In a statement issued Monday, the Forest Preserves of Cook County said its proposed contract extension — 8% in raises over two years plus cash bonuses — would increase starting salaries for Local 700 members by 33% over six years. The district also noted that six other labor unions representing district employees have accepted contract extension terms identical or similar to the offer Local 700 rejected, positioning Local 700 as an outlier among the district's bargaining units.
A District Flush With New Revenue
The dispute unfolds against a backdrop of relatively strong district finances. Cook County voters overwhelmingly passed the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Wildlife Habitat Protection Referendum in November 2022, raising the property tax rate by 0.025% to generate more than $40 million in additional annual revenue, according to a Civic Federation analysis. That funding helped push the district's fiscal year 2025 budget to $189.2 million, up 38% from the $137 million budget it had before the referendum.
The Forest Preserve District, formed in 1914, is the oldest and largest forest preserve system in the country, managing nearly 70,000 acres that make up roughly 11% of Cook County's land area. Beyond trails and nature centers, the district owns the land underneath major regional attractions including Brookfield Zoo Chicago and the Chicago Botanic Garden, as Hoodline has previously reported.
Political Stakes for County Leadership
Because the district's board is composed ex-officio of the 17 elected members of the Cook County Board of Commissioners, with Board President Toni Preckwinkle also serving as the district's board president, the strike carries political weight beyond the picket line. Teamsters Local 700 itself represents more than 10,000 public sector employees across Illinois, including Cook County Jail officers, Chicago Streets and Sanitation personnel and Illinois Tollway workers, making it one of the largest public employee locals in the state. The union has also been growing its footprint within county government; in January, more than 800 Cook County court service deputies across a dozen locations voted to join Local 700.
District officials said the preserves will remain open during the strike, and facilities including golf courses continue normal operations for now. Still, open questions remain about how a prolonged work stoppage among maintenance, mechanic and driver staff could affect trash collection, facility upkeep and the ecological prescribed burns that fall under Local 700's job duties, as negotiations continue.
