Brookfield Zoo Workers to Join Teamsters Health and Welfare Fund

Zookeepers, Grounds Workers, Patrol Officers Ratify Four-Year Contract

Starting April 1, Brookfield Zoo grounds workers, zookeepers and patrol officers will be covered by union health care after Teamsters Local 727 representatives secured a new four-year contract for more than 250 members at the facility.

“The union fought tirelessly to ensure our zoo members will enjoy top-notch health care at absolutely no cost to them. This is a huge victory for our members and their families,” said John Coli Jr., President of Local 727. 

Effective April 1, all zoo members will be eligible to join the Local 727 Health and Welfare Fund, and health care contributions will no longer be deducted from their paychecks. In addition, members can participate in the Healthy Living Wellness & Health Management Program. Participating in the program, which includes an annual physical and health risk assessments, can eliminate annual deductibles, 10 percent share of coinsurance payments and prescription drug co-pays.

Zoo members this month voted via mail-in ballot to ratify the contract, which expires Dec. 31, 2015, and includes raises in the second, third and fourth years. The union also secured a one-time $225 premium to offset health care costs until members join the Local 727 Health and Welfare Fund on April 1.

This marks the first contract that includes the zoo’s patrol officers, who voted to join the union in April 2011.

“These patrol officers have gone from having zero work protections to having the backing of a healthy Teamster contract that has existed for more than 30 years,” Coli said. “We were able to address some of the officers’ specific job-related concerns in the new contract, and the most important economic and non-economic provisions extend to all of our hardworking zoo members.”

The new contract provides zookeeper work groups with the flexibility to recommend to rotate schedules or not, including frequency of rotation, and patrol officers with the ability to request to schedule vacation regardless of the shift they are assigned.

The union also was able to maintain the Legal and Educational Assistance benefit, which is expanding for the 2012-2013 school year to allow members taking 12-23 credit hours toward a degree to receive up to $2,500 in tuition reimbursement each year.

Teamsters Local 727 is an affiliate of Teamsters Joint Council 25, which represents more than 100,000 hardworking men and women throughout Illinois and northwest Indiana.

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