County Says No to Union Proposal to Negotiate through Weekend

With some 1,000 Will County employees now in the ninth day of their strike for fair pay and affordable health care, their union – AFSCME Local 1028 – proposed resuming negotiations with representatives of county management tomorrow (Wednesday, Nov. 27) and to bargain through the weekend.

But management refused, telling the union that county officials won’t be able to respond until after the holiday to the proposal AFSCME made yesterday.

“Public services are stopped and families are out of work, but county management doesn’t seem to think it’s important to get Will County working again,” AFSCME Local 1028 president Dave Delrose said. “The union is ready to work around the clock, and we expect the same from management.”

“I am truly disappointed that the union was not prepared to make a formal counter proposal when we began today,” said Will County Executive Larry Walsh. “After a week of picketing county facilities, and over a week since the last negotiations session broke off, the Union was not able to give us a meaningful counter offer and move us towards a resolution.”

Walsh and the county's negotiation team have been meeting with AFSCME Local 1028 for over 15 months, the last 5 months with the aid of a federal mediator, and the main sticking point remains increased health care costs and wage increases. 

The county has continued to return to the bargaining table, at the request of the federal mediator, in a good faith effort to end the strike and get workers back to their jobs. 

“After listening to all the speeches at last week’s County Board meeting, I really was optimistic that AFSCME would come in prepared to negotiate today,” said Walsh. 

“However, when we first met this morning the union requested information that it could have requested in our last bargaining session or, at a minimum, last week. The union indicated that without the information it first requested this morning, it was not prepared to give the County a counter proposal.

"Because of the union’s lack of preparation, the parties were unable to move forward constructively at today’s session. This type of conduct has been a recurring problem and has led to repeated delays throughout the many months of negotiations. This has to stop if we want to reach an agreement.”

After over six hours of waiting for AFSCME to present a formal proposal, County offices learned that strikers were distributing flyers at county facilities that were filled with factual inaccuracies and misrepresentations of what has been offered at the table. 

“I would hope that the Union would put more energy into negotiations and less into their propaganda,” said Walsh. “If the union truly wants to get employees back to work before the holidays, they need to stop the posturing in negotiations for their press releases and flyers. I would hope the Union gets serious about reaching a settlement.”