Teamsters moving to Mokena

After what officers of the union called a 20-year search for a new home, Teamsters Local 710 will move its offices from Chicago to a Mokena industrial park.

The new building, expected to be finished by October, will house about 60 employees of the local as well as its health, welfare and pension funds.

Chartered in 1903, the local now has its offices at 4217 S. Halsted St. and originally represented drivers working in Chicago's stockyards.

"The freight industry grew as the meat industry shrank," Pat Flynn, 710's secretary-treasurer, said at a groundbreaking Thursday for the new 30,000-square-foot building.

The nation's fourth-largest Teamsters local with 14,000 members, 710 represents drivers who work for companies such as ABF, Holland, Roadway, UPS and Yellow.

The local long had studied a move to the suburbs, said Jim Dawes, the local's president.

"This is a task that has literally taken 20 years," he said.

A ZIP code search of where its members live helped identify the southwest suburbs as the "perfect location" for an office that would be more accessible to 710's members, said Flynn, a Tinley Park resident.

"Our entire membership is out in this area today," he said. "This truly is the center of our universe here."

Apart from the union employees who'll work at the office, it will be frequently visited by members looking for information regarding insurance and pension issues, Flynn said. Local business, such as restaurants, could see increased business as a result, he said.

"Our members make decent money, and we spend it pretty well, too," Flynn said.
Having the local move its offices to the village will "bring a greater level of credibility and awareness" to Mokena, Mayor Joe Werner said. Another major union, the Pipefitters, also has offices and a training center in Mokena.

The union's office will be at 9000 W. 187th St. in Corporate Corridors, a business park being developed by Tinley Park-based TCB Development. It's the third such light industrial project undertaken in Mokena by TCB, which has built about 10 million square feet of commercial space in the Chicago area, primarily in the Southland.