Teamsters Demand State of Illinois Pay Workers Legally Owed Wage Increases

Local 916 Calls Out Employer for Violating Contract, Withholding Wages from 500 Workers

(SPRINGFIELD, Ill.) - Teamsters Local 916 is demanding that the Illinois Department of Central Management Services (CMS) pay workers at the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) the negotiated wage increases in the collective bargaining agreement. As of July 1, 2024, more than 500 IDOT Teamsters have not received the wages they are legally owed.

"IDOT Teamsters are essential public servants who deserve to not only be paid what they are contractually owed but should be treated with dignity and respect by their employer," said JP Fyans III, President of Local 916. "It's abhorrent that CMS would allow hundreds of workers to go without the pay increases agreed upon in the contract. We are demanding that the State of Illinois honor their legally binding commitments to these members and pay them now."

"CMS promised us these wage increases and now they are refusing to pay us. We deserve better," said Dawn Vock, an engineering technician at IDOT.

The contract was ratified in March 2024, after Local 916 spent more than 10 months in negotiations. The legally binding collective bargaining agreement is retroactive to July 1, 2023, and requires that IDOT pay workers the agreed upon salary increases.

To date, Local 916 has filed nine grievances on behalf of 500 IDOT Teamsters who have been impacted by state's illegal behaviors to withhold wage increases, and we will continue to fight until these workers get every single penny they are owed.

Teamsters Local 916 represents more than 4,000 hard-working men and women throughout the state of Illinois from Chicago to Carbondale and East Saint Louis to Champaign. For more information, visit teamsters916.org.

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