Dodging Strike, Cleveland Snowplowers, Laborers Win Wage Increase In New Contract With City

Following successful talks with the city, and averting what could have been a highly consequential strike for snow removal in the midst of winter, Teamsters 507 reached a contract bargaining agreement on Saturday.

The deal, which affects hundreds of city workers, includes 103 seasonal workers and 177 full-timers in waste management, employees in the parks division, parking enforcement workers and those in animal control. More than 70 percent of seasonal workers voted in favor of the contract, along with 83 percent of full-time unionized workers.

A large swath of the unionized Teamsters are snow plowers—many whom are on the city’s payroll—who will see about a 16-percent raise in their base pay over the next three years, from the current $19.65/hour to about $23/hour. It’s one of the highest wage increases to come from Saturday’s agreement.

Dan Chavez, a reporting secretary with Teamsters 507, said that the pandemic’s impact on essential workers—pretty much the entirety of 507—was a key factor in strategizing for wage hikes since the previous talks in 2020.

“Well, the last contract was when COVID hit,so we had deal with that being a factor in negotiations,” Chavez told Scene. “But with city coming out of COVID, [this] is the first time we’re able to take a good stab at the contract—and we came out very successful.”

Roughly three months before the win, as talks warning about a strike wafted around City Hall, some 50 union members protested at 601 Lakeside Avenue, pressuring the city to give them a similar wage hike to what the city gave Cleveland police — 11 percent over three years. Among inflatable rats and 18-wheeler trucks, as Cleveland.com reported, were signs reading “STOP THE WAR ON WORKERS,” and “ESSENTIAL WORKERS DESERVE RESPECT.”

At the time, the city offered the Teamsters $1,000 bonuses and 2-percent raises. Like Chavez, many at November’s rally saw Mayor Bibb’s attention to the policeas a misguided priority.

“This mayor promised to take care of working people,” Carl Pecoraro, a union member, told Cleveland.com at November’s protest. “I think he forgot what he said he was going to do.”

For Chavez, there’s no lasting resentment harbored. As someone who has worked as a business agent and organizer for 507 since 2016, his mind is purely focused, he said, on the trickle down benefits Saturday’s win has for those he represents.

Especially, Chavez noted, the snow plowers. Those who have to work 40 to 50 hours a week, stay on call almost indefinitely during the winter and somehow orchestrate a carefully planned network of deicing—allowing for the rest of the city to operate—in a timely manner.

“I mean, nobody questions it when they get called in there,” he said. “Because we all know if the streets aren’t plowed, nobody’s going to work, kids aren’t going to school. So they take that very seriously at the heart and they make sure they’re there when they’re called upon it.”

Coming soon: Cleveland Scene Daily newsletter. We’ll send you a handful of interesting Cleveland stories every morning. Subscribe now to not miss a thing.

Follow us: Google News | NewsBreak | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

This article appears in Jan 25 – Feb 7, 2023.