U-46 Transportation union pushes for better deal

Hundreds of transportation employees clad in yellow and black crowded into the Elgin Area School District U-46 board meeting Monday to plead for a contract tune-up.

After a year of negotiations and two failed federal mediation sessions, the 394-member union and the district will head back to the drawing table Thursday to re-negotiate terms of a four-year deal.

"We're hoping an agreement will be reached without a strike," District U-46 Transportation Union President Doris Cartwright said.

Union members rejected the district's "last, best and final" offer Feb. 2 because of salary issues, Cartwright said.

"If you believe the U-46 transportation department is second to none, how can you justify a salary offer that sends the message DUTU members are second best?" she asked the board.

The rejected deal offers a 4.4 percent raise for the first two years of the contract. Increases in the third and fourth years are tied to the rate of inflation, and could be between 5.5 and 6 percent.

The recently approved teachers contract, also reached after a protracted negotiation process, gives the average teacher a raise of 6.1 percent in the first year of the contract, 5.7 percent in the second year, and between 4.4 and 5.7 percent in the third year.

District administrators will receive 5.7 percent raises this year, according to John Prince, the district's chief financial officer.

"We don't begrudge the other salary increases," Cartwright said. "We just don't understand why you have refused DUTU employees the same."

U-46's transportation employees are currently the highest paid transportation employees among surrounding school districts, district attorney Pat Broncato said. The current offer is "better than any other offer made in the past 10 years when all wages and terms and conditions are compared," he said.

Thursday's mediation session is an optional step in the bargaining process. After two sessions with a federal mediator, a union may strike after giving 10 days' notice, according to state law.

If no agreement is reached Thursday, officials will return to the bargaining table again next Monday.

"Only after that will we file an intent (to strike)," Cartwright said.

The last time transportation employees in the district went on strike was in the mid-1980s, Broncato said. "It's been almost 25 years."