Employees at Chicago’s Largest Zoo are Now on Strike

Nearly 100 union workers walked off the job at Brookfield Zoo on Monday, May 4th, protesting the lack of a fair contract, and urging the zoo to close to the public until an agreement can be reached.

The workers at Brookfield Zoo, the largest zoo in the Chicago metro, are members of the Teamsters Local 727. After rejecting the zoo's final contract offer, they broke out the inflatable rat, made some clever picket signs ("we're not lion about being understaffed"), and held a strike, lambasting the company's lack of a counterproposal that fits their contract demands, per NBC 5 Chicago.

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Why Brookfield Zoo Workers are Striking:

The key bargaining issues for this faction of the Teamsters include:

• Wage increases
• Health insurance costs
• Staffing guarantees

With the exception of animal care specialists, all union members walked off the job at 5am yesterday morning, per NBC 5 Chicago. Animal care specialists indeed plan on joining the strike once a care plan for the animals is finalized.

Teamsters Local 727's Statement on the Strike:

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Teamsters Local 727 released a statement detailing the reasons for their strike:

More than 100 members of Teamsters Local 727 at the Chicago Zoological Society (CZS), doing business as the Brookfield Zoo Chicago, have launched an unfair labor practice (ULP) strike. All members, except for animal care specialists, walked out at 5 a.m. [Monday] morning. The animal care specialists will join the strike line once the essential care plan for the animals has been finalized.

It’s clear that management is trying to slow roll an agreement on a plan for the animal care specialists to provide essential care to the animals during a work stoppage. This is a blatant attempt to interfere with these members’ lawful right to strike,” said John Coli, Jr, Secretary-Treasurer of Local 727. “While we work to plan for the animals to be cared for, our other members at the Zoo will hold down the strike line. We urge the public not to visit Brookfield Zoo Chicago. Not only are we asking for support for our ULP strike, but many of the animals will not be on exhibit and there will be no custodial or maintenance staff on site. We have urged the zoo to close to the public until an agreement is reached - Teamsters Local 727's statement, per NBC 5 Chicago

Brookfield Zoo's Statement on the Strike:

Meanwhile, Brookfield Zoo released their own statement on the strike:

Brookfield Zoo Chicago wants to be clear: we are not taking away healthcare from our employees.

The Zoo does not administer or control the healthcare plan for Teamsters Local 727 employees. That plan is managed through the Teamsters Health & Welfare Fund, which covers employees across multiple employers. For decades, our role, like other contributing employers, has been to negotiate and provide contributions to that fund on behalf of our employees.

Throughout this process, the Zoo has continued to propose meaningful contributions to support employees’ healthcare coverage, consistent with longstanding practice. We do not believe that the contribution levels in question we have offered are insufficient, and based on available information, they appear to be in line with, or in some cases higher than, what other employers contribute to the same fund - Brookfield Zoo's statement, per NBC 5 Chicago

The strikes appear to continue at least for the foreseeable future. Negotiations and counterproposals can occur on a dime, as history has shown, however. At this time, some exhibits have been closed due to a lack of employees. Read more about the ongoing strikes at Brookfield Zoo on NBC 5 Chicago's website.