U-46 bus union OKs contract, avoids strike

Transportation employees reached the end of a long road Tuesday night when they voted to accept the "last, best and final" contract offer from Elgin Area School District U-46.

The deal was reached after a year of negotiations and four federal mediation sessions.

With 80 percent of the union's bus drivers, mechanics and dispatchers weighing in, 186, or 58.6 percent, voted for the four-year deal, and 130, or 41.4 percent, voted against.

Doris Cartwright, president of the District U-46 Transportation Union, said she was satisfied with the turnout and surprised at the approval.

"I thought we'd have more members voting (to strike)," she said. "But I didn't know what they would do."

Members voted at a 5 p.m. union meeting Tuesday.

"A 'yes' vote was a vote for the contract, a 'no' supported an intent to strike," said Dave Neal, director of UniServ, the local arm of the Illinois Education Association.

Under the terms of the contract, transportation workers will get 4.4 percent raises in the first two years.

Increases in the third and fourth years are tied to the rate of inflation and could be between 5.5 and 6 percent, according to district officials.

Union members rejected the same offer Feb. 2, on the basis the raises were less than other district employees are scheduled to receive.

In a statement released Wednesday afternoon, transportation leaders said most union members "are relieved that a strike has been averted. That was never our goal."

"It will take time to heal the wounds that have been created by (the district's) penny-wise but pound-foolish decision to treat (union) members by a different standard than its other employees," the prepared statement read.

U-46 transportation employees are the highest-paid in the state and will continue to be under the negotiated deal, Neal said.

District attorney Pat Broncato said he and the school board were "pleased the union voted to adopt the four-year agreement."

The type of bargaining process, also used in negotiating the recently approved teachers contract, can often lend itself to longer negotiations, Broncato said. The process used was called the interest-based system.

"In the end," he said, "it produces an agreement that suits the interests of both parties."

"We did the very best we could," Cartwright said. "The members made the choice to stop it here."

Union members now have four years, Cartwright noted, to plan for the next round of negotiations.

Retroactive pay raises will go into effect April 15.