CHICAGO — After nearly three weeks on strike, drivers at SCR Medical Transportation ratified their first contract Sept. 5. It includes significant pay raises, job and safety protections, and other gains.
“Get up! Get down! Chicago is a union town!” chanted dozens of drivers when this worker-correspondent visited the picket line Sept. 2. Workers explained that every day they gathered at noon to march around the company’s South Side headquarters.
The fight involved nearly 800 drivers who provide transportation for people with disabilities, including students with special needs in the public schools. They joined Teamsters Local 727 in January.
“We have been fighting for a union for a long time,” Charles Taitt, who has driven for SCR for four years, told the Militant. “We are fighting for better working conditions and higher wages like the drivers at similar companies make. We also want seniority pay.”
“We work with the most vulnerable people in our communities, and this company doesn’t respect the employees,” said SCR worker Linda Hudson.