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player ready...A group of Lake County jail correctional division and court security officers and their Teamsters Local 700 union representative are voicing their frustrations over a lack of premium pay throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to the Lake County Board ahead of collective bargaining on their next contract.
Teamsters Local 700 business agent Mike Tellez highlighted Tuesday that while many people, including the Lake County Board, worked remotely when the U.S. declared COVID-19 a national emergency in the spring of 2020, roughly 150 correctional officers and court security employees he represents had neither the “ability, nor the luxury of working remotely during the pandemic, which left them and their families vulnerable to the effects of COVID-19.”
The union is expecting to begin contract negotiations with Lake County this spring, ahead of the current contract’s expiration on Nov. 30. Tellez did not name the amount of premium pay that employees are demanding, but said it would likely be between a few thousand dollars and $10,000 per officer.
“They consistently put their health at risk without hesitation in honor of protecting the communities of Lake County,” Tellez told the board. “The Lake County correctional officers who are assigned to the jail are still in fact being exposed to the COVID-19 virus.
“Also, if an officer needs to quarantine due to contracting the virus, these officers have to use their personal time to cover that sick leave?” he said. “How is that fair?”
District 16 member Esiah Campos, D-Round Lake Beach, a Teamsters employee himself, did not mince words about his belief that the county needs to grant the workers the premium pay, and said Sheriff John Idleburg, “is fully behind this initiative.”
“We are pro-labor, and we respect the sacrifices that our sheriff’s (officers) do every single day,” Campos said.
“I would hope for my colleagues to also get behind this and support this,” he added. “If we are pro-union and respect what the sheriff’s (officers) do on a daily basis, they are asking us to lead.”
The push for premium pay has been a focus of Tellez and the union since Idleburg sent a letter asking the County Board to award sheriff’s office employees premium pay in a late 2021 email.
In April, Tellez ripped the County Board for not complying with Idleburg’s request asking for premium pay for his officers.
He told the News-Sun that the correctional officers toughed out significant staffing shortages throughout the pandemic, and were “getting forced to work overtime, every other day, 16-hour shifts possibly, 12-16 hours every other day.
“It was hard going into this confined space knowing you’re going to walk into COVID,” Tellez said. “Knowing you’re going to be exposed to this virus, knowing that you’re going to bring it constantly back to home.”
Members of the County Board typically don’t respond to public comments, but at the end of the meeting, a handful of board members voiced their support for premium pay.
District 9 member Mary Ross Cunningham, D-Waukegan, said the county had worked well with the sheriff’s office throughout her 20 years on the board, and that she has prioritized their well-being during her time as the chair of the board’s Law and Judicial Committee.
“I think we work real good with the sheriff’s department always, because that’s our public safety,” Cunningham said. “You guys are our safety to the community.”
District 5 member Kevin Hunter, R-Ingleside, said, “Let’s get (premium pay) on the table and talk about it.
“I want to make sure and (be) certain that we include the Lake County sheriff’s (office) as well,” Hunter said. “This is something that has been brought up at various times to this board, the hazard pay to those folks. This is a separate union from the correction (officers).”
District 19 member Marah Altenberg, D-Long Grove, and District 7 member Carissa Casbon, D-Gurnee, also voiced support for the union’s demands.
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“We need to show we value our employees,” Altenberg said.
Tellez said he was “utterly shocked” to hear members voice their support directly, and was hopeful it was a sign of progress.
Campos interpreted those comments as the board having reached some “good consensus.”
“Now there is a dialogue where there was not any before,” Campos said. “Obviously, Local 700 and Mike Tellez and (Local 700 secretary-treasurer) Rob Santana are very excited that a Teamster brother is a Lake County Board member.”