Workers returned to work on the $87.7 million renovation at Naperville Central High School Thursday morning after the Naperville Community Unit School District 203 reached an agreement with the striking operators’ engineers union.
The agreement was reached at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday night, Superintendent Mark Mitrovich said at a press conference Thursday morning.
No details were provided at this time, and will be disclosed at a district board meeting on July 19, he added.
"Throughout this entire issue, we have had only one focus and that is that we had 3,100 students and nearly 400 staff people who needed a place to go back to work and go to school," Mitrovich said.
Mitrovich said that the agreement allows for the school project to remain within its budget. The project is set to be complete by Aug. 25, the first day of school.
Work has been disrupted since the strike began last Wednesday. Although some construction crews temporarily returned to work on Tuesday morning, that number quickly dwindled after Local 150 picketers arrived and again halted construction.
The project is among the roughly 300 affected by the strike of the Operating Engineers Local 150 and the Laborers District Council of Chicago.
They'd had been working without a contract for a month and are upset with the rising cost of health care. They're asking for a 15 percent increase spread out over the next three years to cover benefits. Contractors have only offered 3 percent.
