Will County employees return to work, ratify new contract

Members of AFSCME Local 1028 ratified a new contract Thursday night, the culmination of a 15-month long struggle for fair pay, affordable health care and respect on the job that included a 16-day strike by some 1,000 frontline Will County employees.

An overwhelming majority voted to ratify the contract, formalizing an agreement reached early Wednesday morning. County employees returned to work Thursday.

"Our strike was about ensuring that county employees have the fair pay and affordable health care they deserve in return for their hard work, dedication and service to county residents," Local 1028 president Dave Delrose said. "We didn’t want to see our wages lose ground when the cost of living goes up, and we weren't going to accept a health plan where the lowest-paid employees were asked to do more than the highest-paid. By standing together we reached a fair settlement that achieves those goals."

The new contract is a four-year agreement retroactive to December 1, 2012 and extending through November 30, 2016. It includes cost-of-living wage increases totaling 4.5 percent and -- importantly -- eliminates the county pay plan's two bottom steps, in effect adjusting the wage scale upward a further 5 percent while ensuring that employees will continue to receive step increases. The agreement also ensures that increased costs for health care are shared equitably based on employees' ability to pay.

County employees had already gone four years without a cost-of-living increase and 40 percent were making less than $30,000 a year. Despite that, they had earlier been asked to accept a proposal that would have drastically increased health care costs without adequate wage increases, making it effectively a pay cut for many workers.

Local 1028 members walked off the job Nov. 18 after the county refused to agree to a contract that included fair wages and affordable health insurance costs.

"Will County employees stood up and won fairness, justice and respect on the job," Council 31 executive director Henry Bayer said. "The unity and determination of AFSCME Local 1028 members to fight for what's right, no matter the odds, sets an example for us all."

"We thank everyone in the community for the tremendous outpouring of support," Delrose said. "To everyone who hung a sign or joined our picket lines, donated to our cause or just honked and waved, we couldn't have done it without you. Now we're glad to be back at work, serving you, our neighbors and the countless friends across the county that we never knew we had."