When Yvonne Lesko and several of her colleagues came to the Village Board meeting last week carrying picket signs, they were making their final appeal for union contract negotiations. On Monday, union and village officials will hash out their differences before a federal mediator.
“We’re hoping to gain an equitable salary and create a better atmosphere around us,” said Lesko, a Streamwood resident and deputy clerk at Village Hall.
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Lesko is one of 22 village golf course, clerical, custodial and building inspection employees who organized in November 1991 to become Unit-3, the third union in Streamwood represented by the Labor International Union of North American Local 1001.
Union employees and village officials have been trying unsuccessfully for the last five months to negotiate labor contracts.
A federal mediator on Monday could help them reach an agreement on salary adjustments, pay plan structures and job reclassifications and promotions.
“They’re asking for a heck of a lot more than the village is willing to pay,” said village manager Scott Randall. “We’re not prepared to give them what they ask for.”
The dispute began when the union requested labor contracts stipulating 5.4 percent salary increases each year, including cost-of-living raises, until salaries reach their maximum in about nine years. These figures, Lesko said, are the same that non-union clerical employees make.
But village officials proposed union salary increases each year that are 2 percent less than the union wanted. Union workers then made a counterproposal, requesting a 4.5 percent salary increase each year, including cost-of-living raises, until pay levels reach their maximum.
Patcy Fehlandt, village accounting clerk and wife of former Village President Jack Fehlandt, accused village officials of seeking revenge against staff members who organized.
Billy Roth, village president, said last week that she would not comment on salary differences between union and non-union employees because negotiations are still pending.