Workers Shut Down Preckwinkle’s Office

The County Building was shut down as striking Cook County workers rallied in the streets demanding a fair contract now! Workers carpooled downtown in the afternoon after warming up on picket lines at Stroger, Provident, the County Jail, Markham Courthouse, and construction sites in Hickory Hills and Buffalo Grove.

We started the event with a march around Daley Plaza which resulted in two simultaneous picket lines on Washington Street – on Dearborn Avenue and Clark Street. Members held the intersection for nearly 10 minutes while chanting for a fair contract. The crowd crossed over to the sidewalk for a march around the County Building. The line of strikers stretched around the entire building! As members were chanting outside, a group of strikers went inside to President Preckwinkle’s office on the fifth floor to deliver a solidarity letter.

The Chicago Area Chapter of the Universalist Multiracial Unity Action Council (UMUAC), a group of 27 Chicago Faith Leaders, and Chicago Labor Union leaders have each written a letter to President Preckwinkle calling on her to settle the strike, and we wanted to make sure she saw them.

Her staff refused to come out, so we decided to sit and occupy the space until they met with us. Upon hearing that their union sisters and brothers occupied Preckwinkle’s office, the outside crowd swarmed the fifth floor. Together, we held the space and led chants to let our presence be known and felt. Our voices rang through the fifth floor and all over the County Building. If the purple shirts and the strike signs didn’t make it obvious, our energy and passion did. We are Local 73 — the Cook County workers who kept the County running during a pandemic, the strikers who shut down the County building last week, and the union that will continue disrupting business as usual until we get the contract we deserve!

County President Toni Preckwinkle and her staff were not expecting hundreds of striking Cook County workers to occupy her fifth-floor office. But, on day thirteen of the strike, we had to make it clear that we are not backing down. After picketing in the scalding heat and pouring rain for nearly two weeks, we are closer to a deal than ever before – and we can’t stop until we get the contract we’ve been fighting for! When we fight, we win!