That’s what this meeting notice for January 5th indicates:
The HUMAN RESOURCES and FINANCE AND AUDIT COMMITTEES have scheduled a special meeting for Tuesday, January 5, 2016 at 8:15 a.m. to discuss and consider a Resolution Authorizing a Contract Agreement between Service Employees International Union Local 73, County of McHenry and McHenry County Coroner and conduct other business as necessary and appropriate.
Tentative collective bargaining agreements (labor agreements) are sometimes placed in the board agenda.
There should be a change to state law.
If the rank and file vote whether or not to approve a proposed collective bargaining agreement, the taxpayers should also be able to vote on the contract.
Forthermore, if the rank and file receive negotiation updates, the taxpayers should receive negotiation updates.
Furthermore, the tentative change document should be posted, which would be the tentative collective bargaining agreement indicating clearly any changes from the previous agreement, such as underlined text for additions and stricken text for deletions.
That last point is how changes to laws in the Illinois General Assembly (State House of Representatives and Illinois Senate) are presented to the public.
Another point to consider is what is the name of the IMRF pension fund to which these employees contribute.
Presumably it is an IMRF pension fund.
Similarly, what if any retiree healthcare fund would they be eligible for at retirement.
The funding status of those funds should be compared during collective bargaining negotiations, as well as pay and benefit comparisons to those out of state, not just in state.
The taxpayers are currently at a negotiating disadvantage in public sector collective bargaining negotiations in Illinois.
A point of clarification.
The ILGA point refers to the fact that changes to state law are indicated to the public with underline text for additions and stricken text for deletions.
That practice should be extended to collective bargaining agreements in the form of a change document.
Now Mark, you know this is Illinois, don’t you ?
And as long as the Democrats control the state they will
buy the union votes of the public employees.
The only way out of this mess is to abolish the public
employee unions that hold the taxpayers hostage.
Two chances of that happening – none and slim.
Unless, of course, you choose to follow the thousands of people and businesses
that have fled this corrupt tax hellhole.
Happy New Year to all.
SEIU Local 73 is a very large local with around 28,000 members in Illinois and Northwest Indiana.
SEIU Local 73 has nine divisions:
– City of Chicago
– Cook County
– Chicago Park District / Chicago Public Schools
– Downstate / Secretary of State
– Higher Education
– Municipal and School
– Northwest Indiana
– Politics
– Social Services.
The McHenry County Coroners office is in the Municipal / School District division.
The SEIU Local 73 Municipal / School District division has well over 100 bargaining units:
– McHenry County, Coroner’s Office
– Crystal Lake School District 47, Custodial and Maintenance
– Village of Cary, Public Works Department
– Village of Lake in the Hills, Public Works Department
– Village of Carpentersville, Fire Department, Public Works Department
– City of Elgin, Public Works Department, Clerical, Part-Timers
– Elgin School District U46, Food Service
– PACE River Division, Maintenance
– Lake County Head Start, Teachers
– Waukegan School District 60, Custodial and Maintenance, Food Service
– City of Waukegan, Maintenance & Clerical
– North Shore Sanitary District, Maintenance
– North Chicago Street Department, Public Works Department, Clerical
– US Navy Exchange
– Lake Forest School District 67, Custodial and Maintenance
– Chartwells (Wheeling), Food Service
– Palatine School District 15, Custodial and Maintenance
– Prospect Heights School District 23, Custodial and Maintenance
– Arlington Heights School District 25, Custodial and Maintenance
– Winnetka School District 36, Custodial and Maintenance
– Village of Wilmette, Fire Department
– Evanston Township High School District 202, Custodial and Maintenance, Food Service
– City of Park Ridge, Park District
– Village of Schaumburg, Park District
– Village of Hanover Park, Fire Department
– Village of Bloomingdale, Clerical
– Village of Carol Stream, Public Works Department
– Fenton High School District 100 (Bensenville, Wood Dale, Custodial and Maintenance
– DuPage High School District 88 (Addison Trail HS, Willowbrook HS), Custodial and Maintenance
– Leyden Community High School District 212, Custodial and Maintenance
– City of Northlake, Public Works Department
– Maywood School District 89, Custodial and Maintenance, Clerical
– Village of Maywood, Fire Department, Clerical
– Bellwood School District 88, Custodial and Maintenance, Clerical
– Proviso Township High School District 209, Custodial and Maintenance
– Oak Park Elementary School District 97, Custodial and Maintenance
– Oak Park River Forest School District 200, Custodial and Maintenance, Clerical, Security
– Village of Oak Park, Public Works Department, Park District, and Maintenance at the Housing Authority and Residents
– Village of Westchester, Fire Department
– Village of Broadview, Fire Department
– Berwyn North School District 98, Custodial and Maintenance
– Morton High School District 201, Custodial and Maintenance, Nurses, Security, Teacher Assistants
– Cicero School District 99, Custodial and Maintenance, Transportation
– City of Berwyn, Crossing Guards, Community Service Officers,
– Morton College, Custodial and Maintenance, Police
– Village of Riverside, Public Works Department
– Riverside Brookfield Township High School District 208 – Quest, Food Service
– Village of Brookfield, Public Works Department, Clerical
– Village of Lyons, Public Works Department, Clerical
– Lyons Elementary School District 103, Custodial and Maintenance, Teacher Assistants
– Lyons Township High School District 204, Custodial and Maintenance, Food Service
– Pleasantview Fire Protection District (La Grange Highlands), Fire Department and Captains
– Argo School District 217, Custodial and Maintenance
– Village of Bedford Park, Public Works
– City of Burbank, Fire Department
– Village of Bridgeview, Fire Department Lieutenants, Public Works Department
– Village of Justice, Public Works Department
– City of Hickory Hills, Public Works Department
– Village of Chicago Ridge, Public Works Department, Clerical
– Village of Palos Hills, Public Works Department
– City of Palos Heights, Fire Department
– Village of Worth, Public Works Department, Clerical, Park District
– Alsip School District 126, Custodial & Maintenance
– Blue Island School District 130, Custodial & Maintenance
– Calumet Park, Fire Department
– Village of Robbins, Fire Department
– Village of Dixmoor, Fire Department, Public Works
– Harvey School District 152, Custodial & Maintenance
– Hazel Crest Elementary School District 152.5, Custodial & Maintenance
– Village of Hazel Crest, Park District
– Calumet City, Memorial Park Park District
– Ford Heights Elementary School District 169, Custodial & Maintenance
– Chicago Heights Elementary School District 170, Custodial and Maintenance, Food Service
– Bloom Township High School, Custodial and Maintenance, Food Service
– Kirby Elementary School District 140 (Tinley Park, Orland Park), Custodial & Maintenance
– Consolidated High School District 230 (Stagg High School, Palos Hills; Sandburg High School, Orland Park; Andrew High School, Orland Hills), Food Service
– Joliet Head Start, Teachers
– Ottawa Elementary School District 141, Custodial and Maintenance, Clerical, Technical
– Ottawa Township High School District 140, Custodial and Maintenance, Clerical, Para-Profesionals
– Coal City School District 1, Custodial and Maintenance
– City of Braidwood, Clerical, Supervisors
– Kankakee School District 111, Custodial and Maintenance, Food Service
– Elmhurst District 205, Custodial and Maintenance
– Village of Lombard
– Glenbard Township District 87, Custodial and Maintenance
– Village of Hinsdale, Management
– Illinois Tollway
– West Aurora School District 129, Custodial and Maintenance, Transportation
– East Aurora School District 131, Custodial and Maintenance
The McHenry County website does not contain the current collective bargaining agreement for each labor union bargaining unit, and thus does not contain an archived history of the collective bargaining agreements.
An archived history of collective bargaining agreements with labor unions (including the current version) on the government website is part of Transparency 101.
Public school districts have at least the most current collective bargaining agreement with labor unions on its website, because state law mandates they do so.
However there is not a state law mandating other governments place the collective bargaining agreement on the government website.
Such a state law should be worded such that:
1) The agreement is in an commonly used electronically searchable format (not a non-searchable image format) such as Adobe or Microsoft Word.
2) The agreement is easy to locate and easy to search on the government website, for example, under the Human Resources tab on the government website.
3) The agreement is not deleted from the website as new agreements are posted, thus, an archived history of past and current agreements is maintained.
4) All addendums, amendments, letters of agreement, riders, letters of understanding, memorandums of understanding, re-openers, etc. are posted along with the agreeement. They should also be in searchable format.
5) A change document should be posted along with the agreement. A change document indicates which changes were made to the agreement, for example, underlined text for additions and strike-through text for deletions.
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Here are the current McHenry County Board members.
Ask the elected board members which represent you to post at a bare minimum the current collective bargaining agreement on the county website in a searchable format in an easy to locate spot such as under Human Resources.
District 1: Yvonne Barnes, Andrew Gasser, Anna May Miller, Bob Nowak
District 2: Jim Heisler, Ken Koehler, Donna Kurtz, Carolyn Schofield,
District 3: Chairman Joseph Gottemoller, Donald Kopsell, Nick Provenzano, Michael Walkup
District 4: Sue Draffkorn, John Hammerand, Bob Martens, Chuck Wheeler,
District 5: Tina Hill, John Jung Jr, Michael Rein, Michael Skala,
District 6: Michele Aavang, Diane Evertsen, Mary McCann, Larry Smith
So that is 20 elected board members, none of whom have made a concerted public effort to publicly apply pressure to the rest of the board to post county collective bargaining agreements (employer negotiated labor agreements with public sector unions).
There is no good reason to not post the agreements.
Once again the county is not violating a state law, but that is not a valid taxpayer reason to not post the agreements.
And once again if school districts in McHenry County can post collective bargaining agreements, why can’t the county?
The answer is the county can post collective bargaining agreements but have chosen not to do so.
This subject has been written several times over the years, it is not a new idea.
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Let’s say you do not know which County Board district your residence falls in.
One way to determine which County Board district your residence falls in is to call the County at 815- 334-4000 and ask to speak to the County Clerk’s office. Their hours are probably about 8-4:30 or so.
Another way for may people is to locate your precinct in Precinct Finder, which in most, but not all, cases can be easily correlated to a county board district by referencing the County Board District Map.
This does not work for all precincts, as some townships are divided into multiple county board districts, and vice-versa.
Here is the Precinct Finder website:
https://mchenry-il.connect.clarityelections.com/precinctfinder.aspx
The path is http://www.co.mchenry.il.us > County Government > Departments A-I > County Clerk > Precinct Finder and Sample Ballots > Precinct Finder.
Type an address into Precinct Finder and select, “Locate Precinct.”
At the end of the resulting address will the a 4 digit alpha numeric code.
The first three letters in the code are the first three letters of the township.
Here are the McHenry County townships.
Alden
Algonquin
Burton
Chemung
Coral
Dorr
Dunham
Grafton
Greenwood
Hartland
Hebron
Marengo
McHenry
Nunda
Richmond
Riley
Seneca
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Next, here is the URL for the County Board District Map containing township names and County Board District numbers.
http://www.co.mchenry.il.us/county-government/departments-a-i/county-board/district-maps
Here is the path to that URL.
http://www.co.mchenry.il.us > County Government > DEPARTMENTS A-I > County Board > District Maps
The map indicates the townships of McHenry, Grafton, and Algonquin are divided into multiple County Board Districts.
Thus many people in those townships will need to do some further investigation to determine their county board district.
There is a previous version of the collective bargaining agreement between the McHenry County Coroners Office and the SEIU Local 73 labor union, that can be found via a Google Search.
It covers the period November 1, 2008 through November 30, 2011.
http://www.co.mchenry.il.us/Home/ShowDocument?id=17095
Have no clue as to the path on the McHenry County website; in other words; from http://www.co.mchenry.il.us how does one arrive at that document?
The agreement is 59 pages.
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The agreement covering November 30, 2011 through the current date cannot be located via Google Search or found on the county’s website.
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There is another document pertaining to the McHenry County Coroners Office relationship with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 73 that can be found via Google Search.
It is an interest arbitration case heard by the Illinois Labor Relations Board (ILRB).
ILRB Case Number S-MA-10-103.
http://www.state.il.us/ilrb/subsections/pdfs/ArbitrationAwards/S-MA-10-103.pdf
This document is in image (non searchable) format but Adobe Acrobat Pro DC ($15 per month or $450 for the desktop version) can convert it to a searchable pdf format (Tools > Enhance Scans > Enhance > Scanned Documents > Enhance).
This document is 34 pages and it provides some history about SEIU Local 73 in the McHenry County Coroner’s Office.
SEIU Local 73 was certified as the representative of the four deputy coroners and the secretary/deputy coroner in the McHenry County Coroner’s Office on on July 1, 2008.
On March 11, 2010, Local 73 filed a demand for interest arbitration with the Illinois Labor
Relations Board (ILRB).
The basis of Local 73’s claim for interest arbitration was the amendment to the Illinois Public Labor Relations Act (IPLRA), Public Act 096-0598 (PA 96-0598 aka PA 96-598), which provided interest arbitration for all first contracts.
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Because the county board does not have good collective bargaining agreement transparency policies in place (see above notes), the county unnecessarily creates more work for taxpayers to discover what changes are made to the agreements.
One of the best ways to learn how local government operates and spends your taxpayer dollars is to review the collective bargaining agreements in place at each government entity to which you pay taxes.
It is a big task just obtaining all such collective bargaining agreements at the local, county, state, and federal levels, because in most cases the politicians have not created a law requiring the agreements to be posted, archived indefinitely, in a searchable format, easy to find on the government website, including a change document (strike through for deletions and underline text for additions), including any amendment/addendum/appendix/rider/letter of agreement/memorandum of understand (MOU)/re-opener, etc to the agreement.
So instead taxpayers have to submit a FOIA for the documents.
That would be just a basic step.
Some unions such as the Illinois Education Association (IEA) have a comprehensive searchable database of all collective bargaining agreements in their territory, and their counterpart has no such database (Illinois School Management Alliance / Illinois Association of School Boards), putting the taxpayer at a negotiating disadvantage.
One of the aspects of Scott Walker’s Wisconsin Act 10 was collective bargaining reform.