District 15 Needs To Provide Financial Info: Support Staff Union

PALATINE, IL — Contract talks between Community Consolidated School District 15 and the union that represents its educational support staffers remain stalled after a bargaining session Tuesday evening. District negotiators were expecting to hear a counter offer from the Educational Support Personnel Association, which represents the school system's 454 secretaries, nurses, sign language interpreters and other clerical and support staff, but instead were asked to provide "detailed financial information with regard to 16 separate items" two hours before the session, Board President Lisa Szczupaj said in a statement. The union, however, has been requesting that information since June 29, said Bridget Shanahan, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Education Association, the ESPA's parent group.

"Gathering data of this nature takes significant time and resources to complete," Szczupaj said. "The ESPA has indicated that their counter proposal will not be submitted to the Board of Education until the 16-part request for information is submitted. … The district's administration will work to prepare the request for information and will submit it to the ESPA leadership as quickly as possible."

Shanahan said the "basic documents" the union is requesting deal with how the district has determined its cost financials. Having this information ensures that both sides are using the same information when they're creating their contract proposals, she added.

"This baseline financial data is the main reason contract negotiations are not moving forward," Shanahan said.

So far, the district has only turned over one-page summaries of its costs, even though the union has provided its financials on multiple occasions, she said. Requests for additional details on how the districts reached its totals have not been answered, she added.

"The district either does not have these basic financial documents to explain how they’re arriving at their offers or is choosing not to share them with [the union]," Shanahan said. "And in either case, it’s unacceptable and unprofessional. [The union] is baffled at how the district has been so willing to expend significant financial resources on legal representation but has been unwilling to invest time, resources and human capital into basic components of the negotiations process."

Because of the time needed to gather the financial information, the district canceled a bargaining session set for Wednesday afternoon. It's unclear how long it will take the district to put together the requested material or when the next round of talks will be scheduled.

"We will be ready to bargain as soon as we get the cost financials," Shanahan said. "We were prepared to make a counter offer during bargaining [Tuesday] night. We had our offer ready to go. We just wanted to make sure we are negotiating on financial common ground. However, when we asked the district to provide the financial documentation they used to create their alleged 'last best final offer,' the district failed to produce that documentation yet again."

More Patch Coverage:

• District 15 Support Staffers Go On Strike
• District Schools Will Stay Open During Strike
• Nurses, Special Ed Aides Must Return To Work: Judge
• District 15 Strike: Nurses, Classroom Aides Can Join Picket Line

The district's support staffers have been without a contract since July, and talks to reach a new deal have been ongoing since February. The employees had gone on strike Oct. 16, but they returned to work last week after union negotiators rejected the district's latest offer, which was presented Oct. 27. District officials had threatened to begin hiring replacement workers for any striking staffers starting Oct. 30.

Under the district's rejected five-year offer, support staff would receive yearly 2 percent raises and individual retirement benefits of $9,000 for the first three years of the contract. The union is asking for an average 2.5 percent salary hike over five years, arguing that many of its members only earn between $11 and $13 an hour.

Earlier Tuesday, Cook County Judge Neil Cohen dismissed the district's complaint barring school nurses and special education classroom aides from striking, claiming that such a work stoppage endangered the health and safety of students under the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act. A temporary restraining order forced those 168 employees off the picket line Oct. 17, but that order was lifted Oct. 24, and the workers were allowed to strike again.

The IES also has filed several unfair labor practice complaints against the district, alleging that school system officials are "engaging in bad faith bargaining" and that they advertised to permanently hire "strike breakers … at higher rates than ESPA employees earned," according to the union. The Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board will hear those complaints Nov. 17.

Photo via Patch archive