McHenry Co. Finance Committee divided over new labor deals

The McHenry County Board's Finance Committee split Tuesday on whether to impose new three-year labor contracts on two groups of workers who say they may strike rather than accept the deals.

The 3-3 vote, however, will not prevent the full county board from ratifying the contracts next week and bring to a head more than two years of talks with union negotiators representing county coroner's and animal control staff.

"If the membership has enough money that they think they can go on a long strike, then they'll go on strike," said committee member Dan Ryan, one of the three to vote for the contract. "I think the raises in this contract are good and generous, and we need to move it along."

Both groups - five members of the coroner's staff and 12 in animal control - have been working under 2007 terms and wages since they unionized in 2008 and opened up contract talk with county officials. Under the proposed contracts, they would receive a 3-percent raise retroactive to December 2008; another 2-percent hike retroactive to December 2009; and a third increase in December equal to the one nonunion employees receive.

County negotiators recently extended the contract as their "last, best and final" offer.

"We've said this is all the money we have, this is what we're able to pay for these positions," said Finance Committee Chairman Marc Munaretto, who also voted for the contracts Tuesday. "If we ratify this, that's it for negotiations, as far as the county board is concerned."

Wayne Lindwall, director of municipal and schools division for Service Employees International Union Local 73, called the offer a "slap in the face" and said the workers want to return to the bargaining table. If the county refuses, he has said, the workers will consider a strike or federal labor claim against the county.

"Nobody wants to strike; we just want a fair deal," he said. "No matter what happens (with the county board vote), they'll be getting a letter from the union asking them to continue negotiations."

Lindwall said county animal control officers are paid "significantly less" than their peers in neighboring and similar counties, and believe their pay should be moved closer to those levels.

Scott Breeden, one of the three committee members to oppose the deal, said giving the workers a contract under these circumstances harms the county's leverage in talks.

"We haven't seen them move at all, or very little," he said. "I really hate to see us give up bargaining position on back pay and so forth."