Chicago area parking garage workers reach tentative agreement to end 4-day strike

Following a four-day strike, hundreds of workers at Chicago area parking garages have reached a tentative agreement on a new contract.

Teamsters Local 727 represents approximately 1,200 workers for 15 parking companies in the Chicago area, including parking lots and garages at O'Hare and Midway airports and Soldier Field.

Those workers went on strike on Tuesday, accusing the parking companies of refusing to bargain in good faith and engaging in unfair labor practices.

The strike came after the union voted down the company's latest offer for a new contract on Monday. The previous contract expired on Saturday.

On Friday afternoon, the union announced 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 has said, if a deal had not been reached before Sunday night's Bears game, parking lots at Soldier Field would not have been open for the game.

The tentative agreement must still be ratified by the union's rank-and-file members.