COD staff won't join union

Roughly 600 College of DuPage employees skirted the Illinois Education Association this week, making it the first time locally in seven years the union's lost an election.

"This is a little hard to take," IEA organizer Tom Suhrbur said.

"In recent years we win every election."

Voting on whether to align with the union was easy. Counting the ballots was a challenge.

Many employees who voted on switching to the IEA from the existing Classified Personnel Association weren't even eligible to participate. That's why it took until late Thursday afternoon to unofficially determine the results of Wednesday's election.

Classified staff members include those who work at the college and aren't educators or represented by other bargaining groups.

There were 386 ballots cast by employees deemed eligible to vote. People considered ineligible by the state would be those, for example, who work in the human resources department with confidential information or those in supervisory roles.

Financial aid counselor Karen Masterson, who led the charge to unionize, said there was confusion Wednesday about who was eligible. Both sides agreed this summer that about 600 of the school's classified employees legally were able to vote.

College of DuPage officials said they sent that list to the Illinois Labor Relations Board July 26 and no updates were made.

On Wednesday, however, both classified employee camps recommended everyone vote first, then challenge eligibility later.

A total of 142 challenge ballots were cast, said Suhrbur.

Of those, 42 were excluded because they are supervisors. Of the remaining 100 ballots, 38 went toward the tally and 62 remained disputed.

That left the unofficial tally at 240 votes against IEA representation and 184 in favor of the move.

Suhrbur said it's highly likely, though, they'd gain enough valid votes from among those 62 challenges to swing the decision in the IEA's favor. Whether the group seeks to pursue the challenges further is a decision that will be made next week, at which time they'll decide whether to accept the results as final.

Neither Masterson nor Jackie Carnevale, president of the current bargaining group, could be reached Thursday night about the results.

College of DuPage officials have no comment until the results are official, spokesman Brian Kleemann said.