County turns eye to union's salary system

Daily Southtown

February 16, 2005

By Jonathan Lipman

Cook County commissioners are pushing for an end to a pay system that gives county employees up to three raises in a single year, saying the generous deal is making it impossible to balance the budget.

"I'm not against unions ... but if there's a crisis in government, we've got to do something," Commissioner Bobbie Steele (D-Chicago) said. "We have to do things that are not easy to take."

Commissioners approved a resolution Tuesday calling on the county's labor negotiators to press during contract talks for an end to the current pay structure. Employees now get raises every year for seniority and cost of living, as well as raises every few years when a contract is renegotiated.

A second resolution called for negotiators to press the unions for bigger employee contributions to health care. Union employees now pay a maximum of $8 per bi-weekly paycheck for family HMO coverage, county spokeswoman Caryn Stancik said.

Board President John Stroger, who is in charge of labor negotiations for the county, has been calling for an end to seniority increases for more than a year. He has said soaring labor costs were his biggest obstacle in creating a balanced budget.

About a dozen union workers attended the meeting to applaud commissioners who voted against the resolutions.

Christine Boardman, president of the Service Employees International Union Local 73, said the union hasn't seen much interest in negotiations from the county.

"When we've asked to negotiate economics first, we've been told the county isn't prepared," she said. "How can you pass a budget without some idea of what those numbers are going to be?"

Commissioners are still wrestling with the 2005 budget, trying to close a $73 million budget gap without resorting to new taxes proposed by Stroger. The county must have a budget by Feb. 28 or government could shut down.

The vote Tuesday was meant to show the board's resolve in backing up a tough negotiating strategy with unions. The bipartisan 11-to-5 vote had stalwart Democratic commissioners supporting resolutions originally introduced by Republican Commissioner Gregg Goslin of Glenview.

Stroger recused himself from the vote so as not to compromise his position as a negotiator. He said he'd go into negotiations "with an open mind."

"I'm not going to be totally influenced by all the rhetoric here today, but I'm smart enough to know something's got to be done," he said.

Commissioners supporting the change in pay said the county will have to start laying off workers if it doesn't reduce wages.

"We're going to be short $190 million next year," Commissioner Mike Quigley (D-Chicago) said. "No one in their wildest fantasies thinks we can make up that with tax increases. ... To think that step increases and COLA increases and negotiated increases can happen is just not facing reality."

South Side Commissioner Deborah Sims (D-Chicago) and others said county workers were already among the lowest paid government workers and pushing for further cuts to their salaries was a bad way to balance the budget.

"We keep this up, we're going to have working poor people around here," Sims said.

Commissioner Larry Suffredin (D-Evanston), normally a budget hawk who pushes for cost savings, opposed the measure, saying any resolution would weaken the powers of the president. Suffredin received strong support from organized labor during his 2002 campaign, state finance records show.

Copyright 2005, Daily Southtown

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