U-46 board approves three-year contract with food service workers

The Elgin Area School District U-46 school board has approved a three-year contract with food service workers granting an average yearly salary increase of 3 percent, officials said.

The agreement was ratified two weeks ago by the Service Employees International Union.

The contract is retroactive to July 1, 2018, and affects about 130 food service workers, said Jeff King, U-46 deputy superintendent of operations and chief school business official.

It was approved 5-2 with school board members Jeanette Ward and Phil Costello casting the dissenting votes.

Ward opposed the agreement because it guarantees yearly raises not based on merit. She also said the district's share of health insurance premium costs - 85 percent with the remaining 15 percent borne by employees - is too high.

"This contract provides that raises are automatic and only require that an employee be rated as proficient in order to receive a raise in 2021 and beyond," she said. "It is very rare in the private sector to receive guaranteed raises not based on performance."

She said the agreement also allows employees hired on or before June 30 to retire at age 55 with a bonus paid in the last four months of employment. That would increase an employee's Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund earnings in the final 12 months of employment by exactly 6 percent "so as to be just below the amount that would incur penalties," she said.

"Given that the state has currently $129 billion in unfunded pension liability, I don't think that pension spiking should be permitted at all," Ward said. "This contract is not on par with the private sector and contracts like this perpetuate Illinois' fiscal problems."