East Dundee request more extensive than pay freeze, union rep says

A board member of the police union representing a dozen East Dundee police officers says the village's request to freeze wages to balance the village budget would breach the terms of an 8-month-old contract and amount to a pay cut for the officers.

Earlier this month, the East Dundee village board approved a balanced budget that included a pay freeze for all village employees. The balanced budget, though, is contingent upon the union waiving pay increases for the department's 12 unionized officers. Village officials said should the union refuse to waive pay increases, layoffs are expected.

The village estimated the broad wage freeze would save about $90,000 and that police pay increases would cost the village about $44,000.

But Richard Tracy, secretary for the Metropolitan Alliance of Police executive board, said the union and village agreed to forgo 12 months of retroactive pay raises when the village's first-ever union contract was ratified in September 2008. Instead, Tracy said, the parties agreed to higher pay raises in the final year of the three-year contract because the village could not afford to pay a lump sum for 12 months of retroactive wages. Officers were entitled to 4-percent pay raises in the first two years and a 5-percent raise on May 1, 2009.

In addition to the pay raise for the 2009-2010 year, officers were also required to contribute about 21/2 percent more - from 10 percent to 121/2 percent - for health insurance coverage, Tracy said.

"We did the village a favor, we gave them a concession on the back pay," Tracy said. "But they are still asking officers to pay more for health care. This is not freezing pay, it is cutting pay."

However, village officials say the contract stipulates retroactive pay to May 2008, not May 2007.

"In 2007, officers received a cost of living adjustment as contract negotiations were going on," Village President Dan O'Leary said. "In 2008, they got an increase and cost of living adjustment. The village has caught up on the past years. Whatever we owed them, they have received."

O'Leary said the village is asking the union to freeze any increases moving forward.

"It is the same for all employees." O'Leary said. "We want to make it fair for everyone and not have a situation where one group is getting an increase, while everyone else is giving it up."

Moreover, O'Leary said, all village employees are paying more out of pocket as the cost of health insurance continues to climb.

"The village has seen a 40-percent increase over the past three years for health insurance for employees of which little has been passed onto employees," O'Leary said.

Tracy, the union board member, said union representatives and village officials have met to discuss the contract but added the village has not agreed to any of the union's ideas.

"We have a contract with the village and we can hold them to it," Tracy said. "We are willing to fight the layoff and are willing to file grievances if the officers are not given pay raises."