A press release from McHenry County College:
MCC Faculty Association Ratify New Contract
McHenry County College.
[April 11, 2014.Crystal Lake, IL] On April 10, 2014, the MCC Faculty Association (MCCFA) membership voted to ratify a new multi-year, full-time faculty contract that was tentatively agreed upon by the MCCFA and McHenry County College earlier this month.
The association voted in favor of the new contract. As a result, the contract will be placed on the April 24, 2014 Board of Trustees Meeting agenda as an item for the Board to discuss and approve.
College spokesperson, Christina Haggerty, shared, “We are very happy that the full-time faculty
ratified the tentative agreement and look forward to bringing this to our Board for approval.”
No details of the terms of the contract will be released pending the ratification and approval by
the MCC Board of Trustees.
= = = = =
Does anyone but I find it unacceptable that the terms of the contract are not available to inspect prior to approval by the McHenry County College Board?
State House Rep Jeanne Ives (42nd – Wheaton) is sponsoring House Bill 2689 (HB 2689 – 98th General Assembly), co-sponsored by Tom Morrison (54th – Palatine), which would allow the public to view government collective bargaining agreements prior to final government approval and union ratification.
Here is a key sentence in the proposed bill.
“No agreement shall be ratified by the parties until after the public employer publishes the agreement on its website and holds an open public meeting on ratification of the agreement as required under this subsection (e).”
Jack Franks chairs the State Government Administration Committee and voted against the bill in a State Government Administration Committee vote.
Dave McSweeney and Barb Wheeler voted for the bill in that committee.
Paul Kersey, Director of Labor, Illinois Policy Institute, wrote an excellent article with many details about this very occurrence on March 14, 2013 titled, “Collective bargaining transparency bill HB 2689 shot down in House Committee.”
http://www.illinoispolicy.org/collective-bargaining-transparency-bill-hb-2689-shot-down-in-house-committee
Included in the article is roll call (which reps voted for and against the bill) and witness slip (which groups – i.e. government agencies, associations, unions, etc. – and individuals supported and opposed the bill) information.
It was not a party line vote.
The public should have the opportunity to view and voice their opinion about a public sector labor agreement, prior to the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) being ratified by the government and public sector union.
Jack Franks apparently believes otherwise.
It seems House Bill 4268 (HB 4268) is the 2014 version of HB 2689.
HB 2689 seems to be the 2013 version.
http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/BillStatus.asp?DocNum=4268&GAID=12&DocTypeID=HB&SessionID=85&GA=98
House Sponsors of HB 4268 are Rep. Jeanne M Ives, Michael W. Tryon, Barbara Wheeler, David McSweeney, Tom Demmer, Dwight Kay, Joe Sosnowski, and Tom Morrison, all Republicans.
There was a State Government Administration Committee Hearing for HB 4268 on February 26, 2014 in Room 118 at the Capitol Building in Springfield.
There was a motion to Do Pass as Amendend.
The motion failed with 5 proponents and 35 opponents.
This was a party line vote.
Yea: Dan Brady, Tom Demmer, Brad Halbrook, David Harris, Dave McSweeney, Tom Morrison, Michael Tryon, and Barbara Wheeler.
Nea: Jaime Andrade, Katherine Cloonen, Fred Crespo, Monique Davis, Keith Farnham, Jack Franks, Emily McAsey, Christian Mitchell, Michelle Mussman, Carol Sente, Kathleen Willis, and Sam Yingling.
Witness Slip Supporters of Bill:
Illinois Opportunity Project
Illinois Policy Action (Illinois Policy Institute).
Illinois Press Association.
Sauk Valley News.
Witness Slip Opponents to Bill:
AFSCME Council 31 (represents most AFSCME locals in Illinois.
Associated Fire Fighters of Illinois (IAFF – a fire labor union).
Bartlett Fire Department Retired.
Broadview Fire Department.
Central Management Services (CMS), a State of Illinois agency that deals with labor matters amongst other duties.
Chicago Firefighters Union Local 2.
DuPage Mayors and Managers Conference.
Effingham Fire Department
Evanston Police Department.
Frankfort Fire District.
IBEW local 34 (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers).
IBEW Local 197.
Illinois AFL-CIO.
Illinois Association of School Boards (IASB) represented by Illinois Statewide School Management Alliance; IASB is headed by former public school teacher, coach, principal, superintendent and State Rep Roger Eddy.
Illinois Education Association (IEA), a statewide teacher labor union.
Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT), a statewide teacher labor union.
Illinois Fire Chiefs Association.
Itasca Fire Protection District No. 1.
Laborers’ International Union Midwest Region (LiUNA).
Manhattan Fire Protection District.
McDonough County 911.
McLean County ETSB.
Northwest Central Dispatch System.
PBPA (Police Benevolent & Protective Association), a police labor union, represented by LBR Consulting.
SEIU Healthcare Illinois Indiana (Service Employees International Union).
SEIU Local 73.
SMART-Transportation Division.
Teamsters Joint Council 25.
UFCW Local 881 (United Food and Commercial Workers).
West Central IL Building Trades Council (consortium of labor unions).
You can see the details for yourself.
Here is the path.
http://my.ilga.gov
Be sure 98th G.A. is selected in upper left hand corner.
Select “House” in upper left hand corner.
Select Committee Hearings” under “House”.
Select “Previous” under “Committee Hearings”.
Scroll to bottom of screen.
Click right arrow until you arrive at, “2/26/2014 – 2:00 PM State Government Administration Committee.”
Click the little pencil/paper icon on the right side of that line time.
At “HB4268” and “HB4268 – HCA1” on the right side of the screen you can click both the paper/pencil icon, and the white check mark in green circle icon, to pull up the details.
On March 20, 2014, Justin Hegy, a Policy Analyst with Illinois Policy Institute, wrote an article titled, “Illinois still has secret collective bargaining: Bill fails to get to floor” which discusses HB 4268, notes that, “Illinois is one of only 11 states that still have completely secret collective bargaining,” and includes a link to a Goldwater Institute Policy Report dated January 17, 2013 titled, “Airing Out the Smoke-filled Rooms: Bringing Transparency to Public Union Collective Bargaining.”