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Work resumes -- for now -- at Naperville Central

The majority of construction crews returned to work - at least temporarily - Tuesday morning at Naperville Central High School, but the number dwindled by midafternoon.

With an ongoing strike affecting hundreds of road and building projects across the region, Naperville Unit District 203 officials said they're unsure how long the crews will remain on the job. But the fact that many workers returned for at least a day was enough to convince administrators to delay plans to ask the courts for a temporary restraining order to force nonstriking union workers to resume construction.

Ralph Weaver, the district's director of facilities, and school board member Terry Fielden said nonstriking union members were on the job site Tuesday. They said they hoped members of the two striking unions will join them, even if they don't yet have a new contract.

Indeed, members of the striking Laborers' District Council of Chicago and Vicinity were on hand for a short time, but left when pickets from the striking International Union of Operating Engineers arrived.

Ed Maher, spokesman for the Operating Engineers, said his members arrived to resurrect a picket line that he said was taken down without authority by members of the laborers union.

"They have no authority to speak on behalf of (Local) 150. We are still on strike," Maher said Tuesday afternoon. "As soon as we learned what went down at (Naperville) Central we sent our members out there to set that picket line back up."

The situation remains fluid, Fielden said.

He said school district officials have stressed they are not taking sides in the labor dispute, but urged both the unions and management to set aside their differences to keep the Central project on schedule.

Work on the $87.7 million renovation came to a halt July 1 after the two unions went on strike.

Maher said his members are "sympathetic" to the district's needs but stressed nothing will get done without continuing negotiations.

"We understand that there are 3,000 kids who will need a high school to return to at the end of summer and we're doing everything we can to get back to the table," Maher said. "I've got 2,300 members fighting for the future of their health care, so we've got issues we need resolved too."

The groups are at odds with the Mid-America Regional Bargaining Association and Excavators Inc., representing contractors, over wage and benefit issues. They represent about 15,000 workers.

District officials are concerned because they are operating on a very tight time frame to have the school ready for its scheduled Aug. 25 opening. They say they are especially worried about how construction delays might affect the school's 750 to 800 seniors.

Officials said they've already considered several alternatives in the event the school isn't ready on time. Those options include creating split shifts at Naperville North High School, petitioning the Illinois State Board of Education to delay the opening of classes, or even using vacant space at nearby Lucent for temporary classrooms.

All of that likely will be moot if the unions and management come to an agreement Wednesday when they are scheduled to return to the bargaining table.

"We're hearing that the employers' strategy is to starve the workers out through July but we're going into that meeting focused on walking out with a deal that gets our members back to work as soon as possible," Maher said. "I hope they're focused on the same."

District 203 officials say they know the strike is affecting hundreds of projects, but few are more important, or have a tighter time frame, than Central's.

The district launched a large-scale campaign over the weekend to convince workers to return to Central that included e-mail blasts, signs at Naperville schools and fliers that were distributed at the city's Ribfest celebration.

The district also said it was ready to petition the National Labor Relations Board to file a complaint for unfair labor practice based on what district attorney Ken Florey called "illegal secondary boycotting of the project."

Any such legal action has been put on hold for now.

Fielden said the district is proceeding with a promise to pay workers who return to the job retroactively to ensure they receive whatever is settled on during contract negotiations from the day they return.

The school at 440 W. Aurora Ave. serves roughly 3,000 students. Renovations include a three-story addition that will house all major subject areas.

Central also is getting infrastructure upgrades, a new learning resource center, new athletic and music spaces, improved traffic flow inside and out, and synthetic turf on its football field.

The project affects roughly 75 percent of the building.

Weaver said on average, between 100 and 150 workers - representing more than just laborers and operating engineers - have been on site six days a week since classes let out in late May.

He said the work those employees do is "intertwined and codependent," making it difficult for the project to continue if one or more groups is absent for any length of time.

Fielden said he is optimistic that if workers remain on the job through the rest of the summer the school will be ready for its Aug. 25 opening.

"As long as they continue working there's no question everything will be done by Aug. 25," he said.

He said the district tentatively plans to review an updated construction schedule Friday.

Naperville Unit District 203 officials are breathing a little easier now that most crews have returned to work at Naperville Central High School. Scott Sanders | Staff Photographer