St. Charles firefighters join public works employees in endorsing Stein

St. Charles firefighters joined a gathering of about 50 public works employees at Lincoln Park Friday afternoon to announce a joint endorsement of mayoral candidate Jotham Stein.

The public shunning of incumbent Mayor Don DeWitte follows a contentious budget proposal where layoffs have been threatened if all of the city's union employees don't agree to a wage freeze. Teamsters Local 330 President Dominic Romanazzi said negotiations quickly turned bitter when both the wage freeze and a proposal to cut salaries through six unpaid days off did not include many of the salaried employees such as department heads.

"We believe that DeWitte has prove to us that he is not a friend of labor," Romanazzi said. "I can say with certainty that we would have had much better results with a labor-friendly mayor."

DeWitte said Thursday that he doesn't work for the Teamsters or even city employees, but the for the city and its residents.

As a result, both the Teamsters and the firefighters union saw 90 percent of their memberships vote to endorse Stein Thursday night. Romanazzi said the newly formed union of St. Charles police sergeants is also considering an endorsement. The city is still trying to block the formation of that union in court.

Stein thanked the city employees for endorsing him Friday afternoon. He pledged to meet with all city employees, not just department heads, if he is elected to find creative budget cuts to stem the tide of pay freezes and threatened layoffs.

Stein said he views the union vote as an endorsement of him, not just a rejection of DeWitte.

"If they didn't like me they would just stand aside," Stein said.

The city council will host a special meeting Monday night to update the public on where budget talks currently stand. City staff are expected to announce that not all of the city employee unions have agreed to the wage freeze as of yet. There are four major unions in the city.