Union Workers in Illinois Reach Agreements

By Kevin Robinson in News on Mar 8, 2011 2:30PM

Two large labor organizations announced that they had reached agreements with key employers yesterday. At Peoria's Caterpillar, all seven of the United Auto Workers locals that represent some 6,000 hourly workers approved a six-year agreement which bargaining committee members said was “is as good as we’re going to get, this time.”

Along with a $3,000 signing bonus for employees, Caterpillar has agreed not to close any plants, with the exception of two, in York, PA and Memphis, TN. The signing bonus is to be spread out over 2011 and 2012. Among the highlights of the agreement, UAW members will see improved prescription drug benefits, retiree health care benefits for those who opt to retire before Jan. 1, 2016, as well as subsidies for health insurance and a retirement bonus. Employees hired in the year 2005 and later will a three percent wage increase in 2013, and employees hired before 2005 will see a cost of living adjustment between $2.24 and $2.73 per hour. This is due to the two-tiered wage structure that was negotiated in a prior agreement, which sets new hires on a lower hourly wage structure.

Back home, 1,600 hourly hotel workers at the Drake, Chicago Hilton, Hilton O’Hare and Palmer House Hilton approved an agreement that increases wages and job stability while reducing workloads on housekeeping staff. Local employees at Hilton Worldwide already agreed to a wage freeze prior to this agreement, but will see a wage increase of nearly $2 an hour over the life of the contract, which expires in 2013. Unionized workers also held the line on health care costs, will pay "no additional out-of-pocket expenses or reductions in coverage," according to a union spokesperson. Workers with an individual plan currently pay no premium on insurance, and those with a family plan pay $30 a month.

In an email to Crain's Chicago Business, a Hilton spokesperson said “Hilton’s team members are the company’s greatest assets. Therefore we are pleased to have arrived at a point in our negotiations with Unite Here where an agreement could be reached which we feel is both good for our company and good for our team members.”

Negotiations with other major hotel properties in the city, including Hyatt and Starwood are ongoing.