Alton Police Report Details Public Works Picketing Incidents
Public Works employees on strike accused of blocking roadway, harassing and slowing down contractors performing road work, livestreaming incident to Facebook.
ALTON – An incident report from the Alton Police Department sheds new light on alleged behavior by certain striking members of the city’s Public Works department which may lead to future firings.
This follows the City of Alton cutting health insurance and threatening to fire certain Public Works employees on strike over alleged behavior on the picket line. In one instance, the city’s legal representative claims striking members obstructed an Alton Police vehicle from responding to a certain area.
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Teamsters Local 525 Business Agent Jay Steinhauer previously denied union members were obstructing the roadway or blocking the officer from responding. An incident report prepared by Deputy Chief Dustin Christner of the Alton Police Department tells a different story.
The report details an incident that occurred at approximately 3:34 p.m. on Oct. 7, 2026, in the area of Holly Hill Drive involving certain behavior by striking Public Works employees.
As Officer Kevin Couty was dispatched to Holly Hill Drive to provide transport for the Criminal Investigations Division, the report states his route was obstructed by a group of Alton Public Works employees “who were on strike, picketing and standing in the roadway” while active roadwork was in progress.
“Officer Couty's in-car camera footage … shows numerous picketers positioned in the roadway along the east side of the street, while the western side had been freshly oiled as part of the ongoing road repairs,” the report states. “In order to maneuver around the picketers, Officer Couty was required to drive through the active, fresh oil … The picketers ultimately did not move out of the lane of traffic and allow Officer Couty to pass in the open unoiled lane.”
When another officer responded later to ensure no further problems existed, the picketers had left due to the time of day. A crew of non-picketing workers performing road repairs were still at the scene and reported being threatened and harassed by some of the Public Works employees on strike. The report states none wished to file a police report.
“They reported that the picketers had been yelling at them throughout the day and striking their vehicles with their hands, and that one picketer had struck the window of one of the vehicles, which was not broken or damaged,” the report states. “No injuries were reported.”
During a police interview with one of the non-picketing road crew members, the worker identified themselves as a contractor working on milling the road, not a city employee. The contractor explained they were spraying an oil coating on the roadway of Holly Hill Drive since the city’s Public Works employees were on strike.
“[Redacted] stated that the employees were walking in the roadway in front of the truck, slowing them down, which causes oil to puddle up, and verbally harassing [redacted],” the report states. There were also reports of a park maintenance employee livestreaming the incident to Facebook.
Christner conducted a follow-up review of the social media post, described in the report as a 20-minute long video showing striking Teamsters union members walking in the roadway and in front of a City of Alton work truck, trailer and oil tank.
“Striking Teamsters in the video made comments about [redacted] not knowing how to do the work or not being smart enough to operate the machinery,” the report states. “They continued to pace back and forth in the roadway, not using crosswalks, not staying on the sidewalk, not using the shoulder when no sidewalk was available and not yielding to all vehicles as prescribed under 625 ILCS 5/11-1007.”
The report also notes: “[Redacted] stated that there were other striking employees who were there picketing but weren’t hindering the work being done.”
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