DEKALB — A group of Northern Illinois University union workers were out in force Monday afternoon, staging a rally in their fight for a better contract.

Support staff from AFSCME Local 1890 and AFSCME Local 963 walked the picket line during their lunch hour in front of Altgeld Hall.

The issue, according to Sara Dorner, representative of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), is fair wages and labor practices.

“We are rallying for fair contracts with NIU,” Dorner said. “Local 963 has been in negotiations with NIU since Aug. 1 with no progress, and Local 1890 since Feb. 15, 2016 with very little progress. We are out here asking the employer to bargain the contract in good faith.”

Officials at NIU released a statement regarding the AFSCME rally, indicating efforts have been made during the negotiations process.

“NIU supports the right of its employees to collectively bargain, and as a campus community we encourage everyone to exercise their rights to free speech and assembly. The university has made every effort to bargain in good faith with Local 1890 and we are prepared to continue working with them to arrive at a fair and equitable contract for their members,” read the statement released Nov. 20.

Dorner painted a stark contrast in a letter dated Nov. 10 to Jesse Perez, Labor Relations, at NIU, calling the university’s most recent offer an “absolute insult to the employees who have been attempting to negotiate for almost two years now.”

Dorner, representing the group she termed “frontline staff,” listed several references including the university refusing to bargain during work hours.

“The examples illustrating the University’s attempts to erode and degrade union activity at NIU are numerous and long-chronicled. This is evidenced by the University’s initial attempt to bully and intimidate employees from collective action with surreptitious administrative leaves… the University’s failure to send an authorized representative to negotiations; the University’s failure to provide information necessary and relevant to the Union’s representation of the bargaining unit, and now, with this regressive proposal that suddenly ties the tentatively agreed to fiscal year 2018 wage increase with concessions,” Dorner wrote in the letter to Perez.

NIU responds

In a press release dated Nov. 14, NIU officials began by referencing the recent state budget crisis and their commitment to addressing employees’ concerns. The university’s workforce is comprised of 19 unions along with non-unionized employees. Officials also noted different approaches they are taking to address pay issues; for union employees, these are through the collective bargaining process — termed “pathways.”

In the press release, NIU noted the contract extension had been completed with AFSCME Local 963, which includes “pass-through language that applies the 3 percent increment program” that was to be presented to the university’s Board of Trustees at its Nov. 16 meeting.

“To date, AFSCME Local 1890, Paraprofessionals, has been presented with two pathways for participation in the 3 percent salary increment. NIU and AFSCME have reached a tentative agreement to provide the 3 percent increment retroactive to Nov. 16, 2017, as part of a completed initial contract. Negotiations to complete the initial contract are ongoing. In addition, we have offered to provide the 3 percent increment effective Nov. 16, 2017, on terms comparable to all of the agreements above; the members of AFSCME Local 1890 would participate in the 3 percent salary increment, which would be the only increment for previous years and the current fiscal year ending June 30, 2018. At this point, AFSCME Local 1890 has rejected the offer,” as read on the press release from NIU officials.

Support

Virginia Naples, president of the United Faculty Alliance came as a show of support for workers, also walking the picket line for the hour-long duration. Naples explained although there are many different unions, they do have things in common.

“Each group has separate requirements and needs that are different from one another, but we have many things in common… raises, good quality working conditions and all of those things that have been sadly neglected,” Naples said.

Litesa Wallace, State Rep. for Illinois’ 67^th District also came to show support. Wallace received her Masters and Doctorate degrees from NIU and is also running for lieutenant governor.

“I believe it’s very important for us to stand for the right for workers to collectively bargain,” Wallace said. “I’ve fought with the current governor as he’s tried to implement policies that try to take that right away from them. It is that right to collectively bargain that even allows for discussion for a raise to occur — as we’ve heard they’ve gone seven years without [a raise]. This type of organization, and this type of movement is how you get people back to the table.”