Middleby workers approve contract

The 12-week lockout of Middleby Corp. workers in Elgin will end Monday, according to its union.

By a two-vote margin, 66 to 64, members of Teamster Local 714 agreed to a five-year contract that suspends seniority, doubles employees' share of health-care costs and cuts health-care benefits.

The vote was close because the oven-making firm's management informed the Teamsters about half of the plant's 135 union workers will be laid off in the coming weeks, according to Gino Rodriguez, union representative.

"It was just better to go back and have a job and find out what happens later," Rodriguez said Thursday.

Elgin-based Middleby could not be reached for comment.

The contract calls for 20-cent an hour pay raises for two years, 25-cent an hour raises in the third year, and 3 percent raises each of the final two years of the five-year deal. A $2,500 signing bonus will be included, the union said.

Union workers make between $16.57 and $19.50 an hour, according to the union.