New Contract Reached at Chicago Skyway

Toll Collectors Renew Rights to Better Pay, Job Protection

Guaranteed wage increases and holiday pay are just a few of the securities now assured to employees of the Chicago Skyway in a new contract negotiated by the union.

After nearly four months of bargaining with Skyway Concessions Company (SCC), Teamsters Local 727 ensured new rights and benefits previously denied to the company’s toll collectors. Under the agreement, all full- and part-time employees will receive appreciable pay raises annually for the next three years, while enjoying the protection of the union’s grievance and arbitration process.

For the first time, all part-time employees will also begin receiving holiday pay.

“From collecting tolls to repairing equipment and maintaining the 7.8-mile stretch of the Skyway, the work these men and women do is essential to the lifeblood of Chicago and the Indiana Toll Road,” said John T. Coli, Secretary-Treasurer of Local 727. “The Teamsters simply couldn’t allow this company to continue to sacrifice the welfare of its workers to increase its own revenue.”

In the last three years, SCC has raised tolls on the Skyway by 50 percent while failing to offer workers guaranteed wage increases.

The workers, once employed by the city, first fell victim to the siphoning of privatization when the Skyway was leased from Chicago in 2005. As part of the 99-year lease deal with SCC, all workers who may have earned a living wage prior to privatization were forced out of their jobs. Those positions were originally reopened at nearly half the pay rate with few benefits.

Under the new union contract, however, job and wage security have been reaffirmed for the approximately 25 workers still currently employed at the Skyway.

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