The controversy surrounding the labor contracts Kane County Board members approved last December but then asked unions to renegotiate should be ending soon.
County board members are expected to vote on the contracts at their May 7 meeting if the final drafts are submitted by Friday afternoon, board Chairman Chris Lauzen told the Executive Committee Wednesday.
“We will work hard on a reasonable deadline to have everything ready,” Lauzen said. “If not, then I regret we won’t vote on it, and people will have to wait another month for raises.”
He said he felt “cautiously optimistic we’re closing in on this.”
The Executive Committee authorized an agenda for next week’s full county board meeting that will include approval of contracts for the Office of Community Reinvestment Workforce Development, County Clerk’s Office, Health Department, Sheriff’s Office corrections officers and the Coroner’s Office.
While Lauzen thought all of the final draft contracts were in hand Wednesday, he was told by Assistant State’s Attorney Michele Niermann that negotiations with the Coroner’s Office were still ongoing and the county didn’t have a final draft.
Lauzen expressed frustration over what he said was a confusing process that has led him to not “rely on some of the information that comes from the state’s attorney’s office.”
Lauzen has been vocal being unhappy with how State’s Attorney’s Joe McMahon and his office’s Civil Division handled the contracts, which he said were not available for board approval until 16 hours before members were supposed to vote on them. He also criticized the county’s labor attorneys and the state’s attorney office for not clarifying the dates on which union wage increases were to start.
Kane County officials agreed to a 2% wage increase over four years with no change in the amount of employee insurance contributions. County officials understood the raises would take effect Dec. 1, 2018, the start of a new fiscal budget year, and would not be retroactive to when the previous contracts expired. However, the contract states the wage increase took effect Dec. 1, 2017, and the pay is retroactive, union officials said.
AFSCME, the union representing 150 county employees, filed an unfair labor practice charge with the Illinois Labor Relations Board, saying the county acted in bad faith by approving but not signing its contract, union officials said.
Details about the new contracts were not discussed at Wednesday’s meeting. Executive Committee members did not comment on the contracts or respond to any comments Lauzen made during the meeting.
However, Lauzen said he’s ready to sign the contracts upon board approval. Of the 2,000 items presented to him during his tenure, he’s only declined to sign three because they were incomplete or had errors, such as the one in the union contracts, he said.
