Is ECC’s faculty contract a foregone conclusion?

About two weeks ago, Elgin Community College arrived at a tentative agreement with its faculty union, averting a threatened strike.

Since then, few details have emerged about the deal that was forged just a couple hours before dawn.

All we know right now is that it is a three-year agreement, a trivial fact.

College officials have said they will not divulge any information on the contract until after it has been approved by the union and the board.

This seems strange. Negotiating a contract with the faculty union is arguably one of the most important functions of the ECC board — up there with choosing a new college president.

Does it make sense that even the salient points of the contract should be withheld from the public until after its adoption is a forgone conclusion?

That hardly seems to jibe with the notion of a participatory democracy — or one in which decisions of legislating bodies, such as the board is, are not forgone conclusions.

One rationale that I have heard is that publicizing the contract would be somehow unfair to one or another side if the agreement fails to win approval.

Even if this argument holds water, which seems doubtful, it places the interests of a relatively small group (college officials and union leadership) ahead of the thousands of people who live and work within the borders of ECC’s feeder districts.

There are a few things the public needs to know:

1. What is the average salary increase for full- and part-time faculty in years one, two and three?

2. What changes, if any, will there be to faculty health care?

3. What changes, if any, will there be to faculty pensions?

4. Perhaps most importantly, how much will this cost?

If the board ultimately decides to play the miser with contract details until it is too late, ECC voters will have only one recourse: the ballot box.

But given the abysmally low turnout and significant advantages of incumbency, it seems unlikely an unpopular faculty contract would do much harm to sitting trustees.

So even a brief period of public comment would probably be your best opportunity to influence the board.

If you don’t get that opportunity, don’t sweat it. Maybe things will spontaneously change in three years.