Chicago auto mechanics strike ends after 8 weeks - Chicago Tribune

Chicago auto mechanics are set to return to work Monday after reaching a new four-year labor agreement and ending an eight-week strike that shut down service at dozens of new car dealerships.

Mechanics voted to strike Aug. 1 after the previous labor contract expired and the union rejected a proposal from the New Car Dealer Committee, a bargaining arm of the Chicago Automobile Trade Association.

“The membership just narrowly passed the acceptance of the offer,” said Ronnie Gonzalez, a spokesman for Automobile Mechanics’ Local 701 in Carol Stream, which represents about 6,000 active members, including the striking auto mechanics. “The disappointment by those voting against the offer is as a result of being on strike for eight weeks while over 120 dealers not in the NCDC association ratified virtually the same deal without having to go out on strike.”

Striking mechanics from Automobile Mechanics' Local 701 picket outside Berman Infiniti and Nissan Chicago in the Avondale neighborhood, Monday, August 9, 2021. About 800 Chicago auto mechanics went on strike after failing to reach an agreement on a new four-year labor contract, shutting down service work at 56 dealerships in the city and the suburbs. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)

More than 800 auto mechanics initially walked off the job last month at 56 new car dealerships in the city and the suburbs. About 600 mechanics at 35 dealerships remained on strike until Sunday after 21 dealerships broke ranks with the New Car Dealer Committee and signed deals with the union during the course of the eight weeks.

They joined another 55 so-called defector dealerships that reached an agreement with the mechanics union and ratified it before the expiration of the previous contract.

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“Every dealership is its own entity and its own business, and they all have different financial situations,” said Mark Bilek, a spokesman for the Chicago Automobile Trade Association. “Some can weather a strike better than others. Some have different reasons for fighting for a more beneficial contract.”

At issue were such matters as base pay guarantee for mechanics and dealership contributions to the union’s health and welfare fund. Gonzalez said the agreement reached Sunday is “a very small variation” of the defector deal favored by the union.

With a dearth of new cars because of the ongoing global semiconductor chip shortage, and the increasing importance of service revenue, Bilek said it was a difficult climate for the car dealers to hold out in their lengthy standoff with the mechanics.

“They were losing not only revenue to their competitors, but they were losing technicians to their competitors as well,” Bilek said. “There’s a shortage of techs, and the techs have a right to believe that their work is in demand.”

Nearly half of 140 dealers broke ranks with the New Car Dealer Committee during a 2017 strike that lasted more than seven weeks. The longest Chicago auto mechanics strike lasted for 15 weeks in 1975.

rchannick@chicagotribune.com

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