Public works employees losing patience with city

Three-and-a-half years after they voted in favor of unionizing, employees of the city’s public works department said their patience is wearing thin.

“We’ve tried to be calm and determined,” said Kevin Schone, 13-year employee of the public works department. “We don’t want to put the city in a bad light, but we’ve given them every opportunity to get this settled, and it’s time the public is aware of what’s going on.”

A majority of the department’s employees voted in favor of forming a union in February 2006, but the city “delayed the process by dragging everything through the Illinois Labor Relations Board and the appellate court,” Schone said.

The board and the court rejected the city’s arguments, and since the Illinois Appellate Court issued its ruling in June 2008, negotiations with the city have been “painfully slow,” Schone said.

The Washington Times-Reporter filed a request through the Freedom of Information Act to discover the legal costs of the ongoing negotiations. It was found that the city paid a total of $56,037 between March 2006 and April 2009.

The city paid law firm Black, Black and Brown $14,356, between March 2006 and April 2009 to represent the city in negotiations. It paid law firm Husch and Eppenberger LLC $14,967 between April and September 2006 to represent the public works employees, and it paid attorney Christopher A. Nichols $26,714 between October 2006 and January 2008 to represent the public works employees.

Schone said the city has not made an agreement with the public works department because of one issue — fair share. If unionized, all public works employees, even those who do not want to unionize, would “enjoy the benefits” of the union contract, Schone said. Therefore, they would still pay their fare share for union representation, though it would be at a lower cost than those who want to be part of the union.

Nineteen of the 22 public works employees signed to create a union, he said. All of the city’s employees, except some clerical workers, are unionized, he added. Two other city employee unions, police and dispatchers, have contracts with fair-share language, so Shone said it does not make sense to him why the public works employees have to keep fair share out of their contract.

“We never thought it would come down to fair share,” Schone said. “It costs the city nothing to have fair share in the contract, so why are they wasting taxpayer money to drag this out?”

City administrator Bob Morris said he would not comment on the ongoing negotiations because, he said, “it does no good.”

Morris added that the city is not against the public works employees from unionizing.

“They have already petitioned and have gotten authorization to form a union,” he said. “But I can’t get into particulars.”

Jim Gee, a city council member who also represents the city in the negotiations, also said he could not comment.

“I can’t make any comment at this time on the negotiations other than I would like to see us come to an agreement in the very near future,” he said.

Schone said among the reasons public works employees want to form a union is to protect themselves when there is a change in administration.

“If we don’t have something in writing, the new guy comes in and changes everything,” Schone said.

Schone said as an example, in 2002, after Morris became city administrator, the pay plan for public works employees “changed overnight.” Instead of taking seven years to get to the highest salary tier, it now takes 14.

Even so, Schone said they are not asking for a new pay plan but, instead, want job security.

“They should come back to the bargaining table and consider a fair contract,” he said. “We aren’t asking for that much.”

He added that the public works employees are dedicated to their jobs, but if an agreement is not made soon, “people could lose their services.”

“We hope it doesn’t lead to a work stoppage, but it may if the city doesn’t offer a fair contract,” said a public works employee who asked that his name not be used. “Right now, they’re giving us a slap in the face and a black eye.”