ALTON – Members of the Alton Public Works Department are now officially on strike.
Business Agent Jay Steinhauer with Teamsters Local 525 said the strike officially went into effect at midnight on Friday, Sept. 25, 2026. Public Works employees began picketing outside the Alton Public Works building at 7 a.m. on Friday morning, Sept. 25, 2026.
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Steinhauer said the strike will last “as long as it takes” to get city leaders back to the negotiating table.
“All they have to do is come back to the table and sit down,” he said. “Our strike will be one day longer than the city’s – the city’s holding us out. The city’s the one refusing to move on the wages, on the health insurance, so however long that takes.”
Declining to provide exact figures, Steinhauer added: “We’re going to compensate our members very generously. They’re going to make more money standing on the picket line than they actually do working inside – so they’re going to stay out as long as it takes.”
Steinhauer also denied claims from Mayor David Goins and other city officials that the city and union representatives have been actively communicating.
“Last night, the mayor said ‘We’re still negotiating.’ With who? They’re not negotiating with us,” Steinhauer said. “We cannot get any city official or the mayor to come and talk with us directly. They just keep saying to talk with the third-party attorney. We can’t get ever get a meeting scheduled with him, he never reaches out, so we’re done with it.”
The Public Works Department includes the Street Department, Animal Control, Storm Water Maintenance, Forestry Division, and more. Each of these departments have been without a contract since the last agreement between the city and their collective bargaining agency, Teamsters Local Union No. 525, expired on March 31, 2026.
Key issues that remain unresolved are the topics of wages and health insurance, as well as “comp time.”
Public Works employees are requesting a 16% pay raise by the end of the next contract term in 2029. Steinhauer said this could amount to a 4% raise each year for four years or a 0% raise in 2026 with higher raises to follow. He said the city is now far behind on wage increases since the department’s yearly raises dropped to 1% in 2013.
“Since the 80’s, they got 3% [raises] every year from 1987 all the way through 2011 like clockwork,” Steinhauer said. “We feel we’re 20% behind where we should be. They’re not even asking for the full 20%.”
Steinhauer said the city’s one and only official offer from Aug. 15, 2026, which would have included wage increases of 3% per year through 2029-2030 and made changes to medical insurance plans, was rejected by union members.
The city’s medical insurance proposal would place all employees, union and non-union, under a modified health insurance program. The city claims “additional costs would range from zero to minimal” under their insurance proposal, while costs for some employees would decrease in some cases.
Steinhauer said the city has not provided a reason for the higher costs for some employees and the lower costs for others. Teamsters Local 525 has made counter-offers to the city regarding insurance since June, offering to save the city $20,000 per year on insurance costs while keeping all city employees covered. Steinhauer said city officials rejected those offers, citing a “lifetime agreement” signed by city officials which prevents them from changing insurance providers.
Also at issue is “comp time,” or compensatory time off, earned by employees working overtime hours. Steinhauer claims Public Works Director John Mitchell ended the contractually-required practice of offering comp time to employees after city officials determined there was too much comp time “on the books.” Steinhauer claims the city violated its contract by forcibly cashing out comp time accrued by union employees in the midst of negations and has taken the city into pending arbitration over the matter.
As the strike continues, Steinhauer encouraged Alton residents to ask questions of the city’s elected leaders.
“I think the people in Alton need to call their City Council members and ask them why they’re not involved,” Steinhauer said. “Ask them why elected officials are doing nothing to prevent a strike.”
