Dist. 203 OKs maintenance union contract

Naperville Unit District 203 maintenance workers will receive average annual salary increases of 2 percent for the next four years.

The school board approved a new contract Monday with the Naperville Unit Maintenance Association, which includes 141 grounds, custodial and maintenance workers.

"It recognizes the economic climate we're in," Superintendent Mark Mitrovich said, "but two, it also recognized ... the contribution they make and the fact that we tried to do what we could do within the limits of our budget."

Employees in the maintenance union are eligible for both base increases and "step" increases that reward experience, although there is an upper limit on the step increases.

The combination of base and step increases averages 2 percent each year. In the third and fourth years of the deal, the base raises for those at the top of the pay scale will depend on the rate of inflation.

Vice President Jackie Romberg and board members Terry Fielden, Jim Dennison, Suzyn Price and Susan Crotty approved the contract Monday. Dave Weeks voted against it and President Mike Jaensch was absent.

Weeks said after the meeting he had "a few minor issues" with the deal, such as seeing only the tentative agreement and not the final written contract.

"I just struggle with signing something I haven't read," he said.

However, he said he does not think it is a bad contract and, on the contrary, is in favor of giving maintenance workers a raise since the last contract reduced the pay scale for recent hires.

The previous deal reached in 2005 was a five-year contract that gave employees salary increases of between 1 percent and 2 percent each year. In addition to reducing the pay scale for new hires, it also reduced stipends for second-, third- and swing-shift workers.

The 2 percent average annual increase maintenance workers will receive in the new deal mirrors the average annual increase teachers receive from the contract they finalized in March. However, teachers' salaries are frozen in the first year of their deal.

Mitrovich said the board had an overall figure it wanted to stick to for each union. That figure was just divided differently over the life of each contract.

"From the standpoint of the overall contract, there's equity there," he said.

He also applauded the maintenance workers and said there was give and take on both sides and mutual respect during the negotiation process.

No union members attended Monday's meeting to comment on the deal, nor did any residents.

The district still has one contract left to negotiate. It expects to have a new pact with support staff workers in late summer.