_________________________________________________________________
News & Updates
___________________________________________________________
ELECTION RESULTS
EXECUTIVE BOARD
January 1, 2025 – Dec 31, 2025
President: Rave Meyer*
Vice President: Sarah Lindell
Secretary Treasurer: Daksha Patel*
Recording Secretary: Jessica Van Etten*
Member-At-Large: Lesly Schoo
Member-At-Large: Krystyna Kamka
Member-At-Large: Martha Villagomez
Trustee: Rebecca Rahe
*uncontested positions automatically elected
Who’s Running in Local 1890 Election on Nov 19?
Last month, Local 1890’s Nominating Committee presented their recommendations to the Executive Board. During the combined Nomination/Member Meeting on October 29, 2024, all eligible members interested in running for a position on the Executive Board had the opportunity to declare their candidacy alongside the committee’s recommendations. So, who’s running and on the ballot for the 11/19/24 election, and where & when will the election be held?
Tuesday, November 19, 2024 in the Holmes Student Center room 605 from 7:30am – 5pm
Yes, there will be an opportunity for members to vote electronically if you cannot make it in person.
Some things to keep in mind: members can only hold one position on the executive board. Some members are running for more than one position. If elected to both, they must choose which position they wish to keep. The position they decline will go to the member with the next highest number of votes.
Your slate of candidates for the 2024 election for the 2025 Executive Board will be:
Member-at-Large Position
During the election, eligible voting members will need to choose three candidates for member at large.
| Nathan Blake | Suzanne Hogan | Wes Jones |
| Krystyna Kamka | Sarah Lindell | Bryan Lutes |
| Tiffany Morris | Sata Prescott | Lesly Schoo |
| Joshua Schwartz | Martha Villagomez |
Trustee
| Rebecca Rahe | Lise Schlosser |
During the election, eligible voting members will need to choose one candidate for Trustee.
Recording Secretary
One position was open, and one nominee accepted. In accordance with our constitution, this candidate is considered elected. Congratulations!
Jessica VanEtten
Secretary Treasurer
One position was open, and one nominee accepted. In accordance with our constitution, this candidate is considered elected. Congratulations!
Daksha Patel
Vice President
| Krystyna Kamka | Sarah Lindell |
| Jen Schroll | Martha Villagomez |
During the election, eligible voting members will need to choose one candidate for Vice President.
President
One position was open, and one nominee accepted. In accordance with our constitution, this candidate is considered elected. Congratulations!
Rave Meyer
See you at the polling booth on 11/19/24!
How Many VPs does NIU Have??
We can talk all we want about reducing administrative bloat. But the proof is in the pudding, no matter how you handle the word-play. President Freeman will tell you there are only nine (9) Vice President’s… and while technically she is not wrong, we like to look at the whole picture, not just the carefully selected words crafted for a specific perception provided by her and her administration.
Please understand- Local 1890 does not begrudge anyone the ability to make as much money as they can. No, what is at issue and at stake here is the inability of upper administrators to understand while they don’t have an issue with parking rate increases or childcare rates, those of us at the bottom of the pay scale STRUGGLE to pay rent or mortgages, or even buy groceries. Making more money means making fewer tough choices.
Administrators have forgotten what it is like having to skip meals or select less nutritious food, only going to the doctor when absolutely necessary instead of being able to maintain their health, or wonder who is going to watch the kids. Low-wage workers are most often on the verge of homelessness, food insecurity, and insolvency. Wake up, NIU. The workers at the bottom, whom you so fervently state are the most important, NEED YOU to PROVE they are IMPORTANT and VALUED.
2024 Lagoonapalooza Photos on Our
Photos Page!
Check out all the photos from this year’s Lagoonapalooza! You can find them on our photos page here.
LAGOONAPALOOZA IS COMING!
All represented (dues and non-dues) members of AFSCME Local 1890 at NIU, along with our faculty are invited to attend the 4th annual Lagoonapalooza event on 12 September 2024 at the East Lagoon.
Don’t forget to RSVP today!
We order food according to the RSVPs and serve on first come-first serve basis.
LAGOONAPALOOZA LOGO CONTEST
EXTENDED TO 8/15/24!!
The winning design will win a Visa Gift Card worth $50!
Submit your ORIGINAL design to 1890events@afscmelocal1890niu.com by
August 4, 2024 at 11:59pm
in pdf, word, or jpeg format.
LAGOONAPALOOZA IS COMING!
Set for Thursday, September 12, 2024 at the East Lagoon fire pit. All represented Local 1890 members are welcome to attend, and food is on a first come, first serve basis. We order according to the number of RSVPs we receive so you must RSVP.
Local 1890 Wins Grievance, Daily OT is Back
Apologies for not updating here sooner. In January a mediation was held between NIU and Local 1890. Our stance was that eligibility for a flex-time/ flex- schedule does not make you ineligible for daily overtime, working a flex-time/flex-schedule does.
The mediator agreed with us and helped NIU understand that issues will continue until the policy is clear.
By May 2024, an MOU was signed and daily OT returned, with those individuals actually named on the grievance having their timesheets adjusted and overtime paid out, and all Local 1890 members can utilize daily OT on weeks they are not working a flex-time/flex-schedule. This requires a very specific phrase in the timesheet comment section. Please see the email and the newsletter for that phrase, or email us at afsc,elocal1890niu@outlook.com
Dues Update
As you know, every year, Council 31 adjusts our dues rates. This year, the dues only went up $1.11 per pay period! It is now only $21.66 per pay period, or the equivalent of $10.83 cents a week.
Overtime Grievance, Again
NIU has once again determined our members are not eligible for daily overtime.
During contract negotiations, the issue of overtime allocation and eligibility for Local 1890 members was extensively discussed, with a particular emphasis on ensuring that our members qualified for daily overtime.
However, a complication arose with the new policy posted on the website, which remained un-updated even by November 30th. The new policy explicitly stated those utilizing a flex schedule were ineligible for daily overtime – a fact that raised concerns for those members who do NOT utilize flextime/schedule. We discussed this at length during negotiations.
The denial of overtime was put to the test when three bargaining unit members, who do not use flextime/flex schedule, submitted timesheets for the 11/16 – 11/30/23 reporting period using the traditional method for daily overtime reporting.
The grievance was filed and the initial meeting with labor management was December 20, 2023.
On December 21, 2023, we received a response.
NIU’s response to Local 1890 Overtime Grievance
“The collective bargaining agreement cites the University Overtime Policy as applicable to the bargaining
unit members. Under the University Overtime Policy, “Employees that are working under Flextime
arrangements are not permitted to be paid daily overtime.”
Under the Flexible Arrangement Policy, “Flextime arrangements are available year-round to all employees, subject to the operational needs of [the] department.”
Here, the grievants are in a flexible arrangement positions unless stated otherwise by their department. When an employee is in a flexible arrangement position, overtime paid on daily basis is not available.
The collective bargaining agreement cites the University Overtime Policy as applicable to the bargaining unit members. Under the University Overtime Policy, “Employees that are working under Flextime arrangements are not permitted to be paid daily overtime.”
Under the Flexible Arrangement Policy, “Flextime arrangements are available year-round to all employees, subject to the operational needs of [the] department.”
Here, the grievants are in a flexible arrangement positions unless stated otherwise by their department. When an employee is in a flexible arrangement position, overtime paid on daily basis is not available.”
According to NIU, because flextime arrangements are now available to all employees, you are considered flextime unless opted out by your department.
Local 1890 is working on a response.
New Contract, Explained
We get many emails, texts, calls and questions after each contract finalizes. With this in mind, and knowing you’ve got questions, we will do our best to get you answers in a timely fashion.
We will also have answers published in our monthly newsletter that comes out on Tuesday, November 21st.
What we know so far:
Inversion correction is for only the 13 classifications listed on the contract. Determination of who within those classifications gets their salary adjusted is determined by HRS. According to HR Director John Acardo: “HRS has developed a model for spotting and accounting for this so that the employee will be credited with the total years of service in a status role…, omitting any break in service. If, after the disbursement, an employee has questions regarding the calculation, please have them email HumanResources@niu.edu for further assistance.”
One-time lump sum for FY24 as follows:
Hired between 8/1/21 and 6/30/23 $750
Hired between 4/1/17 and 7/31/21 $800
Hired between 6/1/08 and 3/31/17 $1100
Hired before 6/1/2008 $1150
One-Time Lump Sum, FY24: is based on years of service according to hire date on the graph previously shared and estimated pay-out date is on or before December 15, 2023.
Bonus added to the base FY25: is based on the same graph as the FY24 lump sum, but will be applied to your base salary on July 1, 2024 after the 3% salary increment. A member must still be in the bargaining unit in order to receive the disbursement. Calculating your amount: If you are hourly, take your lump sum amount and divide by 1950 to know how much is added to your base rate. If you are salaried, take your lump sum and divide by 24 to know how much is added to each pay period.
For the FY24 5% salary increment and retro pay back to July 1, 2023: an employee will need to be hired before 7/1/2023 and still in the bargaining unit.
This is just a brief overview, and does not account for all possible contingencies or instances.
If, after you have received your allotted amounts and you still have questions, please contact us or HRS.
New NIU employee union contract approved by Board of Trustees
Thursday, Nov. 9, 2023
Progress toward fair pay
Six weeks after Northern Illinois University support staff went public with their frustration over low pay at work and long delays at the bargaining table, they’ve won a new union contract that makes significant strides toward improving wage levels.
Previously ratified by union members, the agreement was approved by university trustees in a special board meeting today.
The two-year agreement includes a 5% pay increase retroactive to July 1, 2023, at least a 3% increase on July 1, 2024, and in both years, additional lump-sum payments ranging from $800 to $1,150 per employee based on seniority.
In addition, the contract raises the minimum starting wage to $16 an hour, and allocates funding specifically to address the problem of “inversion”, in which new hires have sometimes been paid more than experienced employees.
In late September, dozens of union-represented university employees turned out for a board of trustees meeting, where they called for a fair contract with fair pay and no more delays in a bargaining process that had begun back in March.
“This agreement represents a critical step forward in our pursuit of a brighter and more equitable future,” said Rave Meyer, office manager in the NIU Department of Environmental Studies and the president of AFSCME Local 1890. “Even so, our journey is far from over. Our union will remain steadfast in our commitment to tirelessly work toward realizing these essential goals.”
A recent study by the University of Illinois and the Illinois Economic Policy Institute showed that public university employees are paid 21 percent less than their counterparts in state government who do the same job.
“Clerical, technical and other support workers make NIU and every state university happen,” AFSCME Council 31 Executive Director Roberta Lynch said. “Together in our union we’re fighting for fair pay for every university employee.”
NIU clerical, professional and administrative workers are represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 1890. NIU building services, health services, dining and maintenance workers are represented by AFSCME Local 963.
-30-
Ratification Meeting and Vote
Eligible voting members received the email yesterday that gave the particulars of the meetings today for ratification of the tentative agreement.
Two meetings were held, one in person, and one virtual to accommodate all voting members. Eligibility was checked prior to entrance to either meeting.
At the end of both sessions, the vote is 94% in favor of ratification, 6% against.
The tentative agreement is accepted, and now goes to the Board of Trustees for their special meeting and their ratification process.
WE HAVE A TENTATIVE AGREEMENT!
On Tuesday, October 24th, our bargaining team and several members of Local 1890 met to hammer out details of our next contract in a marathon session that lasted until 8pm.
As you know, Local 1890 was determined to stay the course for our members who wanted money “added to the base.”
Adding money to the base is equivalent to an ‘extra raise’ as it applies to your base salary rate, and hence, multiplies all earnings year after year. This has a big impact on your retirement; the more you make, the more in retirement you earn.
Local 1890 held firm to what our members kept telling us- going into every session armed with our members demands to be valued, to be taken seriously, telling administration to ‘put their money where their mouth is’ so to speak.
We are happy to report we got money added to the base!
As soon as a copy of the agreement is available (we expect it to be later this afternoon), we will share it with everyone.
We want to allow our members time to read over the contract and ask questions prior to the ratification meeting.
While we do not have an official copy of the agreement as yet, Local 1890 wanted to get the news out to our members about the tentative agreement and the requirement of a ratification meeting.
A Ratification Meeting is where all eligible voting members vote on accepting or declining the contract in its entirety. A yes vote means the contract is accepted. A no vote means we go back to the table and bargain again. The voice is yours, voting members. The POWER is yours.
We will send the tentative agreement in a following email and the link to the ratification meeting for the voting members will be sent Thursday, 10/26/23.
Next Bargaining Session Set
We finally heard back from administration- our next bargaining session will be Tuesday, October 24, 2023 at 3:30pm at the HRS conference room.
As you know, at our last negotiation session we caucused and then countered. We have been waiting for more than two weeks with no indication administration was about to answer us.
Until yesterday, when they confirmed we will meet again on Tuesday. Jesse Perez, labor relations lead negotiator said, ‘it is our intention to settle the contract’ and if it cannot be settled, to go into mediation.
As space is limited, if you plan to attend, please let us know in advance by emailing afscmelocal1890niu@outlook.com
Pensionable Bonus Question Answered
On Oct 9, we sent out to all eligible voting members a poll on whether or not they would accept the one-time bonus being ‘pensionable.’ That is to say, not added to your base salary, but have SURS taken from it (including regular taxes), so it would count towards your retirement. The idea was floated to the Local 1890 bargaining team as a compromise. We responded that it would be our member’s call, not ours.
So we sent the poll.
As you can see below, the idea was rejected. Members want it added to the base. Our staff rep Rick Surber let the NIU bargaining team know. Meanwhile, we are still waiting on a response from our last counter proposal on 10/2.
10/2/23 Bargaining Update
(The union has asked for the data from mentioned by Perez and Acardo from 9/18, and on 10/1 we received a graph of data (below), but not how it was calculated.)
The union asked clarifying questions of NIU’s bargaining team: It was determined the ‘sum of correction’ column is the total of each classification’s correction needed, and the average correction amount is not per person. There is a cap at $3,000, but not each person will receive a $3,000 raise.
Local 1890 went into Caucus.
After much discussion we ended caucus and it was decided we would counter with:
A two-year contract, FY24 5%, FY25 3%
We wanted our parking MOU to stay in place (we don’t want them giving with one hand and taking money with the other, because most likely the rates will go up a lot, and with less parking spots for blue members, why should the low-paid union members be forced to pay the same rates as faculty and administrators who make two to five times as much as we do?)
We want to keep the $16/hr rate beginning 1/1/24
We want the inversion money for both FY24 and FY25 contracts, not just the FY24 contract, and hopefully the union and HRS can discuss which classifications for FY25
We want the years of service to be added to the base, not a one-time bonus, and at the following rates (this takes into account those employees who’ve had raises since the union came in whereas the senior employees went 7 years without raises):
Hired before 6/1/2008 $1150,
Hired 6/1/2008 – 3/31/2017 $1100,
Hired 4/1/2017 – 8/1/2021 $800,
Hired since 8/1/2021 $750
*We want promotions to have a base raise of 10%, or the base of the range of the new classification, whichever is greater.
*Flex schedules will not be used in a manner to deny overtime.
*Probationary employees receive evaluations between month three and four (6-month probation) and the seventh and eighth month (12-month probation)
*these items were from previous proposals.
Perez asked a few questions, mostly about the years of service being added to the base as well as the inversion (yes, that’s where it matters to us!), and he said he doesn’t think that will work, but he locked onto the parking MOU. The parking MOU was apparently the straw that broke the negotiator.
We mean, he *really* locked on to the parking MOU.
His face got red, his voice rose, he was irritated, and it showed.
Perez: “No. That’s not going to happen. We had an agreement on the parking.”
Surber: “No, we didn’t. We never TA’d the parking.”
Meyer: “When we began our offers, blue had more parking available to them. Now you want us to pay more for less spots.”
Perez: “I don’t have a problem finding parking spots.”
Meyer: “When I came back from lunch today, I had to check three different lots. Our members are not going to want to pay higher for less parking spots.”
Perez: “I’ve not had a problem find spots in three years. And the cost is not that much.”
Meyer: “Give me your salary and I would say the same thing.”
Perez: “NO! It’s not going to happen. We might as well get a mediator.”
Apparently, the additional $10,000 the parking would bring in by eliminating the MOU for our members was so important, Perez nearly yelled across the table.
Our impression is administration is most likely going to raise parking rates…by a lot. And our members make up a large majority of the blue spots, and NIU doesn’t want to lose out on that additional revenue stream.
It also appeared to the bargaining team NIU was not going to budge on anything they offered in their last proposal, other than how to distribute what they want to offer. That was it.
That is not bargaining in good faith. That is holding hostage the low-wage workers.
We formally emailed them our counter this afternoon (10/3). Now we wait for them to contact us, because the NIU team left without scheduling another bargaining session.
Lagoonapalooza 2023 Prize Winners!
Espresso Maker – Jodi Long, English Department
NIU Swag Basket –Janice Steinkellner, Ofc of Institutional Communications
Pyrex Mixing Bowl Set – Dawn Sibley, English Department
Bags Game & Light Toss Rings –Lise Schlosser, Ctr for Women & Gender Studies
5 Pound Dumbells – April Buckley, University Honors Program
Turtle Picture and Turtle Candy – One entry but no ID number or name
Elton John vinyl, 80’s puzzle and scented candle – No entries
Driving Range and Golf Tees –Michael Strunk
Handmade NIU/AFSCME Quilt – Caela Hinkle, Disability Resource Center
Platform Fitness Step – Tina Maxwell, Libraries
Gift certificates:
Four Seasons Bowling 4 Free Games – Connie Storey, University Honors Program
Jonamac Orchard – Janice Steinkellner, Ofc of Institutional Communications
Pizza Villa – Lesly Schoo, College of Law
The Junction – Trisha Fisher, Student Affairs Central
Choice of 3 Monthly gifts:
#1 – Sarah Limon, Testing Services
#2 – Connie Storey, University Honors Program
#3 – Lori Judkins, Biology Department
#4 – Brandy Merritt, Campus Parking
Thanks to our local donors who provided raffle prizes:
The Junction Restaurant, DeKalb
Pizza Villa, DeKalb
Jonamac Orchard – Malta
Four Seasons Bowling – Sycamore
Donations from AFSCME Local 1890 members: Lesly Schoo, Rebecca Rahe, Angie Gasero
2023 Great Colleges to Work For Survey
2021 Initial survey, no one had heard of this report until the results came out:
Then, in 2022, select participants were asked to participate in the study:
When the results came out, NIU dropped from three (3) categories to two (2), slides are
from the 2022 survey mentioned at the January 2023 Monthly Leadership Meeting:
For which we found the breakdown to be:
Two slides of importance to mention:
NIU is admitting the survey is from one of the nation’s largest and most respected workplace recognition programs, and NIU is intentional about using the results to set baselines for areas of improvement.
For the 2023 survey last March, all employees were asked to participate:
And the results are in!!!
Guess what????
NIU did NOT make the list of Great Colleges to Work For:
It appears that NIU fell off the list when ALL employees’ opinions were considered.
This just proves to us there is MUCH IMPROVEMENT to be had at NIU, and further solidifies our resolve to fight the injustice and unfairness in the treatment of our members in regards to low wages, inversion, compression, and lack of investing in NIU’s dedicated employees. THIS is why we fight. THIS is what senior leadership needs to understand.
Local 1890 is dedicated to our members and our fight which helps all NIU employees.
Justice worth seeking
Fairness worth securing
Equity worth demanding
A fight worth winning.
So the question now is, HOW do we get past this and make NIU a great place to work? HOW do we make NIU one of the Great Colleges to Work For?
We continue our fight for all members. That’s how.
Let 1890s members be the reason we get BACK on the list.
NIU is poised to be able to do the right thing here. They are poised to raise workers out of poverty, be known as a generous and amazing place to work. Publicizing falling off the Great Colleges list is not what some might call a smear tactic. It is truth that must come out. It is simply one more reason why we fight for justice, for fairness, and for equity.
Together, Local 1890 and NIU leadership can change the paradigm. Because this is a fight worth winning, for all.
AFSCME Members Pack the Board of Trustees
AFSCME Local 1890 along with AFSCME Local 963 packed the NIU Board of Trustees meeting on Thursday, September 21, 2023.Union members are fighting for fair wages, a stop to inversion and compression, and to reward dedicated workers for years of service. While NIU’s statement mentions they presented an economic plan that [technically] addresses what the union’s issues are, what it doesn’t say is what they’ve offered is less than adequate. For a dedicated employee who has worked for 20 years, NIU’s one-time bonus of $1500 for FY24 (which will NOT be added to their base salary so it will not count towards retirement) over the 20 years equates to less than .04 cents (o.o384 cents to be exact) an hour. What a value! My how they value their employees? NOT.
A 5% raise but also wanting to raise our parking rates? One hand gives, the other taketh away. And it doesn’t stay up with the rise in the cost of living or inflation. As for the inversion- NIU has offered only $100,000 to address inversion in fourteen classifications, except Local 1890 has 100 classifications! Why is this being treated as a concession NIU is making towards the union? This should never have happened in the first place, and NIU administrators have taken responsibility for the inversion, even apologized for it. SO FIX IT, PERIOD. Raise the lowest wages to better than market, while bringing up the incumbents’ rates, make sure it covers inflation and cost of living (SSI 2023 COLA raise is 8.7%, but NIU is offering us a 5% salary increase), confirm no compression, give a dedicated amount to the salary base for years of service, do not give with one hand and take with the other, and FIX YOUR SHIT. Please stand with Locals 963 and 1890 as we continue fighting for better than poverty wages.
https://archive.ph/2023.09.22-010715/https://www.shawlocal.com/daily-chronicle/2023/09/22/niu-union-workers-demand-better-pay-call-out-board-of-trustees-for-poverty-wages/
https://www.wifr.com/2023/09/21/northern-illinois-university-employees-fight-better-wages/
More Lagoonapalooza Pictures!
Look for them on our PHOTOS page!
9/18/23 Bargaining Update
Administration Team:
Jesse Perez, John Acardo, Cathy Doederlein, Sandy Hess, Pulchratia Lacey, Liz Guess
1890 Team:
Rick Surber, Rave Meyer, Kevin Wright, Nicole Adams, Suzanne Hogan, Leonard LeGrand
A bargaining session held on September 18, 2023 from 1 to 3pm yielded no significant advancement in negotiations. Administration countered our proposal from September 14th in which the union asked for:
One year contract 7/1/23 – 6/30/24
Promotions: to read ‘no less than 10 percent’
Salary Increment: FY24 5%
One-Time Bonus: $1000 for all 1890 members
Additional salary increment: 1% for anyone making $16/hour or less
Years of Service additional: .25% for 5 years of service, .5% for 10 years of service, .75% for 15 years of service, and 1% for 20 or more years of service.
Everything added to the base with the exception of the One-Time Bonus. If increments are not added to your base salary, they are almost meaningless as they do not apply to your retirement. Which is fine for a one-time bonus. But not for dedication and hard work over the years.
To apply a ‘one-time bonus’ type increment for years of service means’ thanks for working really hard for us, but you don’t really matter because we won’t put that money where it matters to YOU, in your base.’
For administrations counter on 9/18/23, they proposed:
Two year contract, 7/1/23 – 6/30/25
Promotions to read exactly like NIU policy ( 8% floor)
Salary Increment: FY23 5%, FY24 3% (or the campus-wide increment whichever is greater but not both)
One-time Bonus: applies to FY23 and again in FY24: $1500 for 20 years of service, $1300 for 15 years of service, $1100 for 10 years of service, $1000 for five years of service, and $500 for less than five years of service.
Cutoff date for calculating years of service is July 1 of 2023 and July 1 of 2024.
Minimum Start Rate: $16.00 per hour for all new employees effective January 1, 2024.
Address Inversion: $100,000 allocated and decided upon by HR to address inversion to the following classifications:
Office Manager, Office Support Specialist, Office Administrator, Administrative Aide, Administrative Assistant, Office Support Associate, Admissions/Records Representative, Senior Business Manager, Accounting Officer, Financial Aid Coordinator, Library Specialist, Sr. Events Coordinator, Procurement Officer.
Parking: Rate for 1890 members blue parking will be consistent with the rest of the university blue parking rates.
We did not come to a resolution but had many questions.
The union asked why the years of service did not get added to the base?
Perez answered ‘it won’t this contract but it will the next one.’
Wait, what?
It states the years of service are to be one-time bonuses for FY23 and FY24…so unless you mean ‘it will get added to the next contract’ well….how do you know what will happen? How do you know what will be agreed upon in the next contract? And how can we trust that it WILL be added to the base, because THIS 2-year contract states they are both one-time bonuses. Can you see into the future?
And for what it’s worth, one year of the $1500 one time bonus for 20+ years of service is the equivalent of .0384 cents per hour. Wow. Less than 4 cents an hour. You must really respect your employees!
LeGrand asked about the $100,000 to address inversion, and why it won’t go into effect until January 1, 2024?
Perez replied they wanted to begin after this contract negotiation closes. Are you seeing the future again, Mr. Perez? Nothing is written in stone, yet.
Surber asked what the methodology was in determining the $100,000, and how do they know that will be enough?
Acardo responded they are grouping members by quartiles of years of service for each classification, and verifying there is no inversion. They have identified (so far) approximately 70 inversions to correct.
Adams asked for clarification on the methodology, “You are not basing quartiles off any other salaries except those already low wages within NIU? You are not using a market analysis for wages, only a ‘university analysis.’ Is that correct?” To which Acardo confirmed that process, but clarified, “It’s a good effort in addressing inversion as we go forward.’
Surber continued, “What happens if the $100,00 runs out and you haven’t corrected the incidences?”
To which Perez answered, “Well, if you have a counter proposal, we are open to that.”
Surber then asked for more information regarding the January 1, 2024 increase in salaries for anyone lower than $16/hour and bringing them up to the $16 per hour rate. How many people would this affect?
Acardo responded about 40 members. (He’s right. The union looked at wages after a 5% increase and there are exactly 40 members still under the $16 mark. But before you get too excited about their accuracy, we can also tell you those 40 members range in years of service from one (1) month to 24 years at NIU, with several being in the same classification for up to 18 of those years, and yet they still make less than $16 per hour.)
Surber’s follow-up question was, “How does this proposal address the compression already within promotional lines?”
Perez answered “I don’t know if this process will address it [compression] in the same way the union’s proposal does, but it’s a start.”
Meyer then asked, “Does this $100,000 towards correcting inversion need to be in this agreement? In other words, if the union didn’t bring up this inversion as a problem, would NIU be correcting the inversion issues going forward?”
Perez opined, “It’s important to the union, so we are adding it to the CBA.”
Is that really a valid response? Because adding a ‘years of service reward to our base salary’ is important to the members of our union, too. Yet you steadfastly refuse to do that. Was your response a platitude, or an untruth?
Next session is Monday, October 2, 2023 at 2pm, Altgeld 125
9/14/23 Bargaining Update
Local 1890 and NIU’s Administration met at noon on Thursday, September 14, 2023.
On the administration side:
Jesse Perez, Sandy Hess, John Acardo, Liz Guess, Cathy Doederlein
For Local 1890:
Rick Surber, Rave Meyer, Suzanne Hogan, Kevin Wright, Nicole Adams, Felicia Owens
Rick Surber, Local 1890’s AFSCME Staff Representative, began with a counter to administrations last economic plan. We will go into that counter in a minute.
Jesse Perez began his discussion on changes to the promotions section of the counter.
Where Local 1890 wants the promotion language to read, ‘no less than 10 percent,’ administration argues that ‘effectively the existing NIU policy is saying the same thing (referring to the promotion policy that states, ‘…salary increase shall be 8 to 10% based on the employers discretion.).’
Perez reiterated we should strike the unions suggestion of ‘no less than 10 percent’ because it is duplicitous in nature and the language is already covered by NIU policy.
Our argument is NIU policy is used to offer only 8% and applicants must argue to receive anything higher due to human resources interpreting the policy to read ‘shall be 8%’ and then “employers discretion.’ Receiving a 10% promotional increase is typically unheard of by the employees.
Local 1890 would like the promotional increase to be a floor of 10%.
The issue was tabled until the next session.
Local 1890’s bargaining team on Tuesday discussed options on moving forward with trying to accommodate our members four biggest issues:
Compression, inversion, lowest paid in the state, and years of service.
A plan was put forth to work within the framework of NIU Administration’s last counter offer, but to contain at least two of the four issues our members care about, and is a good compromise between administrations low offers that correct nothing, and our step plan.
The bargaining committee agreed to put forth the following one-year plan:
FY24:
5% raise
$1000 one-time bonus
1% for anyone making $16/hour or less,
plus years of service increments of:
.25% (5 years of service), or
.5% (10 years of service), or
.75% (15 years of service), or
1% (20+ years of service).
Local 1890’s bargaining team believes the above plan helps with being the lowest paid in the state while accounting in a small way for years of service. As for the compression and inversion?
We want to tackle that immediately following this contract being finalized, and end with a step plan.
NIU’s bargaining team asked a few questions (yes, the union wants the increases added to the base!) and then went into caucus for over an hour. When they returned, Perez stated that we are not coming to a conclusion just yet, and administration really wants a two-year deal.
President Meyer asked if the two year contract was administrations biggest stumbling block?
Perez went into a two-minute speech that included, ‘we all want the same things, to correct the inversion and compression, and we need a committee to begin working on that.’
Surber responded, ‘Then what have you been doing for the past 18 months since we brought up these issues?’
Perez gave another speech and when his roll finally stopped, Meyer said, ‘I hear you. Now, can you answer the question?’
Perez responded, ‘what was the question?’
You could hear the audible gasps and head-shakes by our bargaining committee.
Meyer again asked, ‘Is the one-year contract administrations biggest stumbling block?’
Perez responded, ‘It’s not the only thing, but it is a big part, yes.’
Meyer then said, ‘Then multiply that offer by two.’
Another bargaining session is scheduled for
Monday, September 18, 1pm
Altgeld 125
All are welcome to attend
9/1/23 Bargaining Update
Local 1890 met with NIU negotiators Jesse Perez, Sandy Hess, Cathy Doederline, and John Acardo
Present for 1890 was Rick Surber, Rave Meyer, Lesly Schoo, Kevin Harris, Krys Kamka, Suzanne Hogan.
Perez began with the administrators’ counter offer to our counter-response last week.
If you remember, our counter was:
A one -year agreement (7/1/23 – 6/30/24) and:
FY24 6% increment, +1% years of service award for every 5 years of service, $2000 one-time bonus, flex time employees are eligible for overtime, keep the committee to discuss inversion, compression, and educational degrees bonuses, former MOU for parking is negotiable, and incremental raise and one-time bonus is applicable for all employees hired on or before 6/30/23.
At the negotiation session on Friday, 9/1, Perez handed out administrations’ counter:
- Two year agreement (7/1/23 – 6/30/25) with the economic portion being:
- FY24: 5% increase, $1000 one-time bonus, the increase and bonus will be applied to all bargaining unit members that are employed with NIU and are members of the bargaining unit at the time NIU Board of Trustees approves this agreement.
- FY25: 3% increase or or the campus-wide non-negotiated employee increment, whichever is higher but not both, with the increase only applying to those hired by 12/31/23, and a $1000 one-time bonus.
There are a few things to note with this counter by administration:
One; for the current fiscal year (FY24), they only changed the eligibility requirements to include what we asked for- all bargaining unit members hired by 6/30/23
Two; for fiscal year FY25, the increment goes back to their usual language of anyone hired in the first six months of the year is not eligible for the increment, but doesn’t put that stipulation on the one-time bonus
Three; under overtime, they added the language for which we asked that states: “Flex scheduling will not be utilized in a manner to deny an employee from being paid for previously worked overtime.”
Four; administration included our requirement the employer will provide probationary employees with evaluations between the 3rd & 4th month (6-month probation employees) and the 7th & 8th month (12 month probation employees).
Five; administration refused to allow our bargaining unit to continue with a reduced parking rate,
Six: we continue a joint committee to work on ‘sharing ideas regarding a compensation plan.’
Local 1890’s bargaining team along with a faculty negotiation team member noticed the employer still has not addressed any of the concerns of our members.
Earlier in the week during the local’s membership meeting, President Meyer conducted a poll of what matters to our members.
The top four items of concern to our members were:
- Not to be the lowest paid employees in the state
- Being rewarded for years of service
- Making sure new employees are not paid higher than incumbents (inversion)
- Making sure new employees are not paid the same or close to incumbents (compression)
President Meyer asked NIU’s bargaining team how is it that the union has been discussing those exact four points for almost two years, yet administration steadfastly refuses to offer a proposal that addresses ANY of those points while simultaneously saying (repeatedly!) they understand our concerns?
Perez responded with another platitude and another excuse, mentioning that is what the committee will endeavor to correct.
Meyer flat out stated “We don’t believe you because we’ve done the committee thing before, and look where we are now.”
Perez began the typical response of “we have had many upper administrators leave, and now have new people in the positions to make this work.”
Meyer again reiterated, “Your administrators leaving is not our problem. The university still functions, and we should not have to pay the price of you losing your top people. It only strengthens and confirms our issues and why we are asking for what we are asking.”
Perez then said, “If you have a way to address those concerns within what we are offering, we want to hear it.”
Hey- Perez, what do you think the step plan addresses?
And when you include their $1,000,000 one-time bonuses (over two years) as a total increase, our two plans are literally about 1% off from each other. Ours just requires them to do a little more work up front!
The meeting ended without us countering their latest offer.
Local 1890’s bargaining team will meet next week to discuss pressure on the Board of Trustees, actions you as bargaining unit members may be asked to take or participate in, and what we need our counter to look like.
We have another bargaining session slated for Thursday 9/14 at 12pm, Altgeld 125
Ice Cream Social & Services a Big Hit
Many Local 1890 members braved the heat walking over to Altgeld Hall for a tasty bite of ice cream! We were lucky enough to be able to move indoors in the 100+ degree heat, and put up signs outside so everyone would know where we were.
Several members took advantage of the IDHS social services information available to them, and we are grateful our sister union members at the State level were able to be in attendance.
A special thanks goes out to the Environmental Studies department, who originally held the reservation for AL125, and allowed us to share the room with them for our first hour.
Bargaining Update 8/24/23
Local 1890 met with NIU negotiators Jesse Perez and Sandy Hess for the bargaining session immediately following the Ice Cream Social.
Present for 1890 was Rick Surber, Rave Meyer, Felicia Owens, Kevin Harris, Krys Kamka, Suzanne Hogan.
Perez began with the administrators’ counter offer to their previous offer we rejected as it did not contain anything that gets at inversion, compression, years of service, or allow for non-subjective determination of experience or educational degrees. Their newest proposal is as follows:
A two-year agreement (7/1/23- 6/30/25):
- *FY24 5% increment, $1000 one-time bonus, form a committee ‘for the purposes of sharing ideas regarding a compensation plan for the subsequent CBA following the expiration of this agreement.’
- *FY25 3% increment, $500 one-time bonus, keeping the committee from FY24.
- *Parking rates will go up to regular non-union faculty/staff parking rates effective 7/1/24.
- **Overtime will be as-needed and case-by-case basis, in accordance with university policy (flex time employees are not eligible for overtime).
- **Probationary period employees will receive a written evaluation between the third and fourth month of probation.
- *Incremental raises and one-time bonuses are only applicable to employees hired on or before 12/31/22.
The ** items are concerns your bargaining committee brought up in previous sessions.
Overtime- We do not wish for flex time employees to be punished unfairly in regards to overtime. If a flex time employee works 11 hours on Monday, our concern is the department could send them home on Thursday to avoid having to pay overtime for that week. That’s a possible abuse of our members. We want assurances, in writing, that our members that utilize flex time ARE eligible for overtime.
Evaluation- We wanted probationary employees to receive written feedback before they complete their probation only to be released. Constructive feedback is important.
NIU wants to take away our previous MOU allowing our members to have a reduced cost parking permit, forcing us to pay the same as all other non-union faculty and staff. If this were to go into effect now (it’s not), that would mean an approximate $20 jump in our parking rates at a minimum, and that’s only IF they don’t raise the rates for when this takes effect. Given NIU is reducing the number of parking spots available for BLUE parking, and putting in pay meters at more and more locations, you can bet when the number of parking spots diminish, the rates will go up. Given the rates right now, all other things remaining the same, NIU would collect only a little above $9600 by forcing our members to pay more for parking.
Perez did let us know there was wiggle room in the offer.
The Local 1890 bargaining team went into caucus, even asking opinions from those 1890 members in the audience. The results were unanimous.
Counter with a one -year agreement (7/1/23 – 6/30/24) and:
FY24 6% increment, +1% years of service award for every 5 years of service, $2000 one-time bonus, flex time employees are eligible for overtime, keep the committee to discuss inversion, compression, and educational degrees bonuses, former MOU for parking is negotiable, and incremental raise and one-time bonus is applicable for all employees hired on or before 6/30/23.
Perez stated he was not authorized to go with numbers that high, but he will take it back to administrators and let us know what they say.
You’re probably wondering why we moved away from the initial step-plan. The short answer is, we haven’t. But I’ll ask this- How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!
By adding the 1% increment for years of service, we are attempting to correct years of no raises, and allow those employees who have been loyal to NIU to be fairly compensated for that loyalty.
It is also one portion of our step plan.
By increasing the one-time bonus, while it won’t count towards lifetime earnings for retirement, the higher amount will allow lower paid employees (most of our members fall into this category) to have something more than three trips to Costco (because realistically, after taxes you may end up with $600-$700).
If we must do this one bite at a time, one bite at a time it is.
We have another bargaining session slated for Friday 9/1 at 2pm.
ICE CREAM SOCIAL & SERVICES EVENT PLANNED
Bargaining session on 7/28
While I was not in attendance for the 7/28 bargaining session, it was made clear going forward, HR Director John Acardo will be in attendance at the bargaining sessions.
However, during the Civil Service Celebration, CFO George Middlemist and Local 1890 President Rave Meyer held a one-on-one conversation regarding 1890’s insistence for a step plan. Middlemist shared a hypothetical story about a child not having their room cleaned by a certain date, what would you do?
President Meyer’s answer was that it depends. Meyer hoped that the child 1) was given adequate time, 2) would recognize to ask for help if needed, or 3) would understand if the task was not completed given 1 and 2, the parent would clean the room for them, and they would not like the results.
Middlemist responded, what if something important came up and the child could not get their room clean by the due date?
Again, Meyer stated, ‘If the child had adequate time, and numerous extensions already, there will be no more extensions and the parent cleans the room.’
Was the child given adequate time to clean their room? (Yes, NIU knew for years inequity is an issue.)
Did the child waste time until the last minute, then cry wolf? (Is NIU trying to cry wolf now?)
Did the child do very little off and on over the course of the advance time, and then expect an extension? (NIU has done nothing to correct the injustice and inequity over the last several years.)
Sorry NIU. We think the buzzer has sounded and your room isn’t clean.
7/19/23 TEAMS Bargaining Session with
HRS Director John Acardo
Present for NIU: Labor Management Jesse Perez, CFO George Middlemist, HR Director John Acardo, Liz Guess, Cathy Doederline
Present for 1890: Staff Rep Rick Surber, President Rave Meyer, VP Sarah Lindell, Krys Kamka, Leonard LeGrand & Felicia Owens
The entire 1890 membership was invited to tune in and listen.
The meeting began at 4pm, and our staff rep Rick Surber introduced himself to the new HRS Director John Acardo. Surber then gave an overview of how, after many years of kicking the can down the road, NIU now finds itself in this position- the years of neglect that got us to this point which began pre-covid (covid just made it worse).
In explaining our economic proposal (aka ‘step plan’) and how it works, Surber went over placement (based on experience, classification, current salary, and which equals no less than 7% raise) and years of service steps for our ‘more seniority’ members. Each year employees would go up a step of 2.5% or the Board of Trustees raise, whichever is higher. As always, we can adjust going forward. If we do not put this in place NOW, the situation at NIU will only get worse.
Surber then shared his screen with scatter graphs of what placements/salaries currently look like; definitely scattered, random, and nonsensical. Then he shared what those same graphs would look like under our plan (the more appropriate growth curve). Yes, there are still a few outliers, but the result is more desirable in wage plans.
Surber made it a point to stress that NIU must be able to retain the employees that hold the university together. Local 1890 has 500 members in over 100 classifications, most do not get training. Some of the new employees are starting out in higher wages than existing employees and someone once joked they should quit and reapply to their same position just to get the higher wage.
NIU has the ability to pay a higher rate to new employees or pay a higher rate to existing employees to keep them and their knowledge. NIU is choosing the former.
Surber states, “With your actions, you’re demonstrating what we’re saying is true. The alternative is no action or a small action that will make the situation worse.”
Acardo asked clarifying questions on the placement of steps for those employees with years of service, which Surber answered.
The NIU team then went into caucus for 25 minutes, and upon their return:
Perez stated, “We don’t disagree with what you’re saying on the problems. We’re taking ownership of the entire matter. The question is, how to do this in a reasonable amount of time?”
Perez then said they have an economic plan to share with us and presented it.
The basics are:
A two-year agreement beginning 7/1/23 and expiring 6/30/25
FY23 5%, + $1000 for each bargaining unit member (conditions apply).
FY24: 3% or the Board of Trustees increment, whichever is greater.
In addition, they would like to form a committee consisting three members from 1890 and three from NIU for “the purposes of sharing ideas regarding a compensation plan for the subsequent CBA following the expiration of this agreement. The workgroup is not intended to be a form of collective bargaining….[and] will meet regularly on a mutually agreeable date, time, and location.”
In other words, NIU wants to:
1) kick the can down the road again, not addressing years of service, low starting salaries, the inversion happening more and more often, or the compression their actions are causing and
2) form another committee to discuss ideas, but not bargain.
In reality, their counter is nothing more than a short-term bribe with their three trips to Costco $1000 per bargaining unit member meant to attract the lowest paid employees to put pressure on 1890 to accept their plan, and another committee to discuss what we’ve been discussing with them for almost two years.
How can we trust what they say when their actions to date prove the opposite?
Words are cheap. Actions show priority.
We have always been fans of ‘watch what they do, and you will never be fooled by their words.”
Here’s something to think about though-
Given administrations willingness to throw in another half a million dollars, our two plans are only approximately $650,000 apart. The difference is- ours accounts for helping to eliminate a lot of the inequity our members (senior employees and new ones alike) have had to deal with over the past several years… where theirs just continues the injustice.
There may yet be a way we can alter our counter to obtain something that works for us and them.
Your bargaining team is hard at work- with a committee meeting on 7/24 and another bargaining session on 7/28.
We will keep you informed.
July Membership Meeting Moved
Just a small reminder: Last month, eligible voting members voted to move the July meeting from the 25th to the 18th to accommodate more staff attending the Civil Service Celebration luncheon.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
6/14, The BoT meeting, and 6/28/23 Bargaining Sessions
Our members reacted exactly as we expected them to react given NIU’s economic counter to our step plan. 5% for FY24 and 2% for FY25? That’s it? No one was happy with that.
At our June 14 session, we went over more issues regarding the overtime rule and the policy that was up on the NIU website for revisions. Just because the university wants to make that revision a policy does not mean our bargaining unit must adhere to the revision. That’s why we bargain. We believe our members deserve the ability to earn daily overtime. If we accept that revised policy, flex members would not be allowed daily overtime at all, while regular schedule members could be abused. We see so many ways administration and lower level supervisors can compel extra work from our members one day, only to send them home later in the week to avoid paying the higher overtime rate because they are not allowed daily overtime. We think that is unacceptable. There is still more bargaining to do on the overtime front.
During the Board of Trustees meeting on June 15, two of our union sisters spoke; Sarah Lindell, Vice President for AFSCME Local 1890, and Felicia Owens, Office Support Specialist in the Department of Earth, Atmosphere, and Environment.
Both spoke of the injustice that has been ongoing with our members, the lack of raises for almost a decade, the upside-down hiring practices, inversion, and inequity. Lindell accented that NIU touts Diversity, Equity and Inclusion….unless it’s for the employees of our union. Owens spoke of how she is just now, after working for NIU since 2012, after moving positions, after obtaining a degree and more, she is finally back to just above $16 an hour, and that was due to the union’s negotiated raises.
Also speaking at the Board of Trustees meeting was the vice-president of Local 963, who reiterated the points Lindell and Owens made.
From the June 28th bargaining session, we signed-off (TA’d, or ‘tentative agreement’) on a couple minor things like wording, etc. But our biggest issue was our economic proposal (NIU once again said they are waiting for another meeting with higher-ups), in which we reiterated we are standing on our proposal (not moving), and we brought up the subject of training employees.
Our argument is if an employee can be fired for not doing their duties and responsibilities, then employees should be trained on how to do them. Requiring new employees (of which there are many because those with institutional knowledge are and have been leaving the university) to ‘figure it out as they go along’ is not an adequate training program and thus employees should not be fired for not doing something they haven’t been trained to do.
Local 1890 wants to develop a training program and we are willing to work with NIU to tweak and enact this program. Our members are drowning and they need help.
NIU responded ‘they don’t believe training is a contractual item.’
We dare to disagree. And did.
We left the meeting without having any follow-up bargaining sessions scheduled as NIU’s team said they were trying to get a meeting with us and the new HR Director John Acardo and CFO George Middlemist in order to go over our economic plan. As of June 29th, NIU offered our next session to be July 28th. A month away?
Once again, NIU is demonstrating they do not believe our members are important enough to negotiate in good faith and in a timely manner.
We advised NIU administration that Local 1890 believes our members are important, and the discussions surrounding our economic plan should take precedence over their new hires meeting the different groups on campus.
The next bargaining session (we were able to get an earlier date, but not as early as we would like) is set for 7/19/23 @4pm. on Teams.
6/8/23
Local 1890 would like to encourage all represented members to attend the NIU Board of Trustees meeting on 6/15/23 at 8am. This is the board meeting where they approve NIU’s budget for FY24, and any across-the-board raises for non-represented (union) personnel.
We understand everyone can join via their zoom link, but we want to encourage you to attend IN PERSON if at all possible. The meeting is in Altgeld 315.
See you there!
6/1/23 Bargaining Session
Local 1890 received an email earlier the day of bargaining from Labor Relations. They advised us Administration would not be ready to counter our economic proposal, aka step plan, which aims to address once and for all the multiple years of inequity, incredibly low wages, compression and inversion.
Our idea is not new. And administrators know we have been working towards this for the better part of two years. After last year’s wage negotiation, the 1890-HRS committee was formed to discuss just this topic, and key players were given the beginning version of our step plan.
We met anyway, wanting to go over the overtime rule among other things. We also invited our members, the faculty union, the instructors union, and our sibling local 963, the BSW and Dining workers.
And as it turned out, Administration DID have an economic proposal for us. Sort of.
Well, five sentences, really. But I must assume they poured their heart and soul into those five sentences because to do any less would be to not bargain in good faith.
Let’s just say we rejected their economic counter. It was not even a compromise.
For more in-depth bargaining updates, sign up for our bargaining updates and news email.
We go to the table again on 6/14 at 10am.
If you’d like to be there, email us at bargaining@afscmelocal1890niu.com
UPDATE to 5/18/23 update
In our earlier update, we spoke of how there is new language being proposed for NIU’s existing Schedules, Hours, and Overtime policy. You can read the new proposed language here. Afterwards, please let us know at bargaining@afscmelocal1890niu.com what your thoughts are concerning this proposed policy language change. Please know this is only proposed, and is not yet formal as it must still go up on the NIU Policy Library webpage for it’s 30-day commenting period. Then, amendments/adjustments will be made before being posted as policy.
Note: line through means eliminate, underlined means proposed.
5/18/23 The Overtime Rules are About to Change
Local 1890 met at the table with for bargaining once again. During this round of negotiations, the majority of the conversation centered around the current overtime rule and what it will look like going forward.
Local 1890 wanted the phrase the “overtime can be paid for anything over 7.5 hours in a day (or 8 hours, depending on your regular schedule), and or anything over 37.5 hours (40 hours) in a week.” We had that before, we wanted it back.
Well, NIU came to the table with a not-yet published policy change for the entire university concerning overtime. Their words were: “You want what everyone else has. Well, the policy for the entire university is about to change.” NIU’s negotiating team shared with Local 1890’s bargaining team a new policy that will soon go up for review on NIU’s Policy Library for the required 30-day commenting period.
NIU’s position is that more people want a flexible (flex) schedule that doesn’t take away from utilizing their vacation or other benefit time. Because of this, the overtime policy is undergoing an overhaul.
Local 1890 will try to post the policy on this page soon so you know what is coming. In the meantime, if you had to choose between having a flexible schedule, or receiving overtime, which would YOU choose?
Send us an email at AFSCMELocal1890niu@outlook.com and let us know.
We will also bring up this possible new policy at our member meeting on Tuesday, March 30, 2023 @ noon. If you’re a dues-paying member, the link will automatically be sent to you the Friday before the meeting. We want all hands on deck for this, everyone! Let’s hear what you have to say!
5/3/2023 1890’s Bargaining Team Hears a Portion of NIU’s Proposal
Local 1890 met on 5/3/23 with NIU’s bargaining team to hear a portion of their proposal. While NIU wasn’t ready to respond to our economic proposal (aka, how to alleviate the wage compression, inversion, and add value for years of service), they did respond with a few non-economic proposals of their own. For one, they want to raise our parking rates, and had Laura Lundelius sit in and explain why the rates are going to go up next year.
(Hint, it has a lot to do with elimination of the buses, and lack of employees purchasing parking permits, along with ‘but the rates haven’t been raised in 12 years! and a touch of ‘NIU has one of the three lowest parking rates!’ thrown in. I don’t know about you, but using that analogy as a reason for raising parking rates should also work when 1890 says, ‘But NIU pays the lowest wages in the state!’ as a reason for RAISING wages. Hey, turn about is fair play, right?)
1890 Meets with NIU’s CFO
1890’s bargaining team members met virtually with NIU Chief Financial Officer George Middlemist on 4/20/23 where the economic portion of our contract was raised. Among the topics reviewed – obtaining a higher degree, years of experience, and the implementation of a step-plan for our members which would create a clear, equitable process to new employee wages, existing wages, while accounting for years of service.
Right now, NIU’s own rules regarding hiring, existing, and promotional wages looks like this on a scatter plot…and we emphasize ‘scatter’ as it’s nonsensical:
As you can clearly see….the pay rates are all over the board, er, graph. If NIU’s internal ‘equity’ and ‘parity’ were clear, why does this graph of actual data show such chaos? Why is one employee of less than 5 years making almost $30 per hour but another employee of 30+ years making less than $18 per hour?
Where is the equity and parity on that? What reasoning could establish such disarray? More so, why is everyone accepting this mess?
If NIU were to accept 1890’s plan, it would establish better guidelines, and place people in a more logical manner – in an upright, curving graph similar to this:
1890 is not advocating $5 and $10 raises for everyone, and this graph is only a representation of what we hope to accomplish. We are wanting to establish a better, more equitable way to apply starting wages, years of experience, higher degree completion, promotions and promotional raises, classification movements, and seniority, all while decreasing wage compression and inversion.
In the long run, establishing such guidelines now will enable everyone involved to plot their financial futures. Isn’t that what everyone wants, anyway? To know what they will make, when? To know how much they will spend (as close as possible)? To be able to have the most readily available information so as to make the best possible, informed decisions? This is a win-win situation. Yes, the outlay may be expensive, but the long run, and our members, are worth it.
Local 1890 will meet with NIU again at the beginning of May. We will keep you informed.
NIU Unveils Bargaining Team at First Session
Our bargaining team met with NIU Administration on 4/14/23.
The NIU team was comprised of Jesse Perez (Labor Management), Pulchratia Lacey (Human Resources), Sandy Hess (Payroll), and Cathy Doederlein (Human Resources). At the table for Local 1890 were Rick Surber (Staff Rep), Rave Meyer (President), Sarah Lindell (Vice President), Dawn Sibley (English), Nicole Adams (Psychology), and Neil Daly (Curriculum and Instruction).
Local 1890 began the session with the non-economic proposals to our contract, such as changing the wording for the overtime rule, adjusting how members can receive a temporary salary adjustment or additional pay, and some health and safety changes.
We next meet virtually where NIU’s Chief Financial Officer George Middlemist will be in attendance to hear more of our proposal.
Union Workers Earn More Than Non-Union Workers
Life is better in a union! Try the AFSCME Wage Comparison Tool to see the Union Difference.
NIU Has Trouble Committing
We notified NIU of our intent to bargain on 3/1/2023. NIU’s civil service labor relations representative, Jesse Perez, who is in charge of civil service union negotiations, did not respond to our intent to bargain until April 4th. Perez gave us two dates to choose from: April 14th from 2 pm- 4:30pm or April 20th from 2 pm – 4:30 pm, and it would be himself and Pulchratia Lacey, HR Director of Employee Relations, at a minimum on their side.
President Meyer discussed the options with our union staff rep Rick Surber. We chose to keep both sessions and notified Perez of that decision. (President Meyer then reserved Altgeld 125 for the first session on 4/14, and HSC 305 for the first and second sessions, just in case.)
Perez responded – if we were to choose the April 20th date, the new Chief Financial Officer, George Middlemist, would be at the bargaining session, but Mr. Middlemist was not available on 4/14. We would only be dealing with Mr. Perez if we kept the 4/14 date.
Wait- weren’t we dealing with Mr. Perez and Ms. Lacey (at least) on the 14th?
Surber and Meyer spoke again, deciding it was important the the new CFO Mr. Middlemist hear our economic plan. Surber emailed Perez regarding our decision, and mentioned we reserved HSC 305 for the bargaining session.
Perez advised Surber that Middlemist was only available on 4/20, only on Teams, and only for an hour.
Let us get this straight- NIU waits for a month to contact us for dates they are available, changes who is available, pushes us to one specific date, and then only gives us an hour of an administrator’s time, and not even in person?
Who is not even trying to bargain in good faith, NIU? Why is NIU playing ‘hot-potato’ with Local 1890’s members and bargaining sessions? Why has NIU not settled their bargaining team as yet?
Members- We have POWER here. It is clear that NIU doesn’t yet realize “in good faith” bargaining with Local 1890 is required by law, and should take precedence over and push out any other group/cohort meeting NOT required by law.
The law is on our side here. And we have a powerful voice on the NIU campus. Let’s USE IT!
SOLIDARITY!
Local 1890 Officially Notifies NIU of Intent to Bargain
3/1/23
Local 1890’s five year contract expires at midnight on June 30, 2023. In accordance with the Collective Bargaining Agreement, we sent a letter to Northern Illinois University, the Educational Labor Relations Board, and AFSCME Council 31 of our intent to bargain.
On March 9, 2023, we emailed our team’s ‘dates available’ for the first bargaining session. We now wait for NIU to let us know if any of the dates we chose work for their team.
Do you want to be on the bargaining team??? We still have a few slots open. Send an email to bargaining@AFSCMELocal1890niu.com with your intent.
We will hold a bargaining training session on March 21, 2023 for our team.
Local 1890 offering U of I Polk School Scholarship
Local 1890 voted to send two members to the University of Illinois Polk School training session
May 17 – 21, 2023.
If you significantly female-identify and would like to attend, please send us an email by March 15 expressing your intention.
If you would like to pay your own way, please follow the directions on the flyer.
If you would like a scholarship from Local 1890, please email us. We will randomly choose two individuals to attend and notify (and register) the scholarship winners.
In-Person New Employee Orientation Begins Again
During the HRS-1890 meetings, Local 1890 persuaded NIU to allow us our legal right to have in-person orientations, regardless whether or not NIU plans to have their own.
As of February 6, 2023, Local 1890 will hold in-person orientations every 1st and 3rd Monday of each month from 4pm – 4:30 pm. While our first two orientations were held in the conference room at HRS, beginning with the March 6, 2023 date, all in-person orientations will be held in Lowden Hall 304. If you are a new hire, or were hired within the past two years, you are allowed release time to attend. No vacation time need be taken! Come out and see what AFSCME Local 1890 has done, and can do for you!
Collective Bargaining Agreement expires 6/30/2023
Local 1890’s Collective Bargaining Agreement expires on June 30, 2023.
To determine what will be in our contract going forward, we want to hear from YOU. What did you like about our contract? What didn’t you like about our contract? What do you want to change, and how? Do you have suggestions for something new to put into our contract?
If you are interested in not only putting in your ideas, but actually helping to negotiate, we would like you to join our contract bargaining team.
Any dues-paying member can join by simply emailing us your intention to join at bargaining@afscmelocal1890niu.com !
Standard procedure is the group gets together over Teams to discuss what we want in our next contract. Then, up to four individuals will join the Staff Rep and President as they sit down at the table, typically at the Human Resource Services conference room, and negotiate in person what our group has discussed. Each in-person meeting we rotate who the four members are that sit at the table each time allowing everyone a chance to be at the table if they want it. Everyone joins in for the bargaining team Teams meetings (before and after the in-person meetings) so those who sat at the table can fill what happened for our whole bargaining team.
It is a slow process, and it make take several weeks. There is a lot at stake, here.
Workload! Overtime! Help! Hiring! Safety!
Whatever is on your mind, we can discuss together in our bargaining team meetings.
This is where YOUR VOICE is heard.
Join us!
Election Winners 11/29/22
The election was held in person at the lower level fireplace inside the Holmes Student Center.
Ballots were cast, and the winners were:
Recording Secretary: Lesly Schoo
Member-at-Large: Jacklyn Egolf
Member-at-Large: Krystyna Kamka
Member-at-Large: Bryan Lutes
Let’s congratulate all those who took the time to vote, as well as those who put themselves out there to run for an office! You are all winners in our book. 🙂
Election 11/29 and Welcome New Executive Board Members
At Tuesday, October 25th’s Nomination meeting, four positions were elected without contestation. If you recall, our local’s constitution stipulates that any nominee for a position that is uncontested is considered elected. To that end, we welcome new executive board member Daksha Patel as Secretary-Treasurer effective January 1, 2023, new 1-year Trustee Joe Gruber effective January 1, 2023, and continuing as President and Vice President are Rave Meyer and Sarah Lindell.
ELECTION WILL BE ON NOVEMBER 29, 2022
for (1) Recording Secretary and (3) Member-At-Large positions.
The candidates are:
Antonette Bourn & Lesly Schoo for Record Secretary
Jacklyn Egolf, Krys Kamka, Bea Kooken, Bryan Lutes, and Gary Weishaar for Member-at-Large.
Please vote on November 29, 2022 at the Holmes Student Center lower level fireplace for the two positions above. Election time will be from 7am to 6pm.
Local 1890 Executive Board Election Notice
Local 1890 will hold its annual election this year on Tuesday, November 29, 2022.
AFSCME International constitution requires us to hold this election in person.
To that end, our election will be from 7am to 6pm in the Holmes Student Center lower level fireplace area.
You should see an AFSCME VOTE HERE sign, and if it all works out, we will have some hot cocoa available!
Please note we will still hold our usual 12 noon zoom meeting for our rolling drawing giveaway!
________________________________
ELECTION 2022
Sept 28,2022
The critically important 2022 General Election is now in high gear. Early voting (at designated locations) starts this week—and that means we need to be reaching out to our own members, to fellow labor union members, and to our friends and neighbors who are most likely to vote for our endorsed candidates—and for the Workers’ Rights Amendment to our state constitution.
Your involvement is key. Sign up today to volunteer as part of the Labor ’22 community outreach program.
There is so much on the ballot this year that matters so much to improving the lives of our members and building the strength of our union: You can click here to review the complete list of AFSCME-recommended candidates. Just a reminder that the PEOPLE Conference delegates did not make an endorsement in the governor’s race due to the acute crisis of understaffing in state government and the harsh toll it is taking on so many of our members. While the Conference did delegate to the PEOPLE Executive Committee the authority to make an endorsement at any time prior to the election pending progress in addressing that crisis, no further action has been taken at this time.
Time is short and the stakes are high. Let’s come together now to do all that we can to win for a better future for us all.
Lagoon-A-Palooza 2022 Photos!
Lagoon-A-Palooza Gift Basket Winners Drawn
Zum Basket- M. Lalowski
Movie Night & Mug, socks and lanyard Basket – J. Turner
Dog Hooman Basket – P. Fisher
Games and snacks Basket – L. Schoo
Fall for clean Basket – C. Storey
Haunted Illinois Basket – T. Paul
Taste of DeKalb Basket – F. Owens
Cat Hooman Basket – J. Long
Football tickets and blanket Basket – C. Hinkle
Mug and bracelet Basket – J. Slaby
Tool time Basket – B. Kooken
Javaah Basket – A. Kocher
Crystal – D. Patel
Scarf hanger and various storage bags Basket -B.Merritt
Guess the number of Lifesavers (211)- L. Schoo
Lagoon-A-Palooza 2022
7/6/22 Wage Agreement Ratified
Just a quick note to let you know the proposed wage agreement was ratified at today’s (7/6/22) noon meeting.
Notification to NIU administrators went out a moment ago advising the signed agreement was approved and is effective 7/1/22.
Local 1890 members should see the increase on their 7/15/22 (salaried) pay advice or 7/29/22 (hourly) pay advice (pay period 7/1 – 7/15/22).
A huge thank you to the bargaining committee for all their hard work and to Rick Surber, AFSCME Staff Rep for guidance. Now the hard work of putting together a committee for wages, compression, inequity, and other pay issues begins in earnest.
Change is hard and takes time. It is our job to help those we can now, but also to make the lives better of those who come after us. If you are an eligible voting member and wish to be considered for this
HRS-1890 committee, please send us an email at AFSCMELocal1890niu@outlook.com.
Tell us who you are, what department you’re in, how long you’ve worked for NIU, and anything else you feel is relevant. We are looking for ‘lifers & newbies’ for this committee.
Don’t count yourself out before applying!
There are only a few spaces available, but we definitely want to hear from everyone.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
6/28/22 Local 1890 Wage Negotiation Update
6/30/22 Signed Wage Agreement for Ratification on 7/6/22
When we last left off, we were waiting on NIU to contact us they were ready to present their counteroffer to our re-imagined pay structure- the step plan.
On June 16th, NIU administration dismissed the step plan, citing it is too comprehensive to enact in a simple wage reopener. Instead, they proposed three-point counteroffer:
1. Utilize the across the board pay-band structure being offered to non-represented employees.
2. Any Local 1890 member below the $13.50 rate will be raised to $13.50.
3. Human Resource Services and Local 1890 will meet quarterly to discuss wages, compression, inequity, and other issues to ‘front-load’ next year’s contract negotiation.
NIU’s bargaining team stated the counter was a package deal. When we left the table, there was no deal in place as yet.
Local 1890 bargaining team then met via Zoom on 6/21/22 to discuss NIU’s counteroffer presented on 6/16/22. It was discussed in depth the points NIU offered (2 and 3) were bare bones and not beneficial to members unless adjustments could be made. Point 2 of NIU’s counter was determined to be something that the university must do regardless of bargaining, as the state minimum wage law forces them to raise everyone to 13.00/hour by January 1, 2023. All NIU offered was .50 cents/hour for the 15 members that would still be under the $13 mark after the ATB raise (point 1). Doing the math, that extra .50/hr equates to $14,625 for a year, barely above the basic minimum the law requires.
So point 2 of NIU’s proposal was worth approximately $975 (or $37.50 ppp) for each of the 15 members, and there are almost 500 people in our bargaining unit. We decided to counter their offer on this point to $14.50 per hour which would help out an additional 16 members. We wanted to get ahead of the minimum wage law.
Part of the issue we found with a blanket raise such as this doesn’t take into account the compression or seniority of members. Local 1890 created a spreadsheet highlighting the inequities, and sent it to Jesse Perez and Bill Hodson for consideration. The spreadsheet highlights are:
Point 3: Union bargaining team members discussed the quarterly meetings, wanting them to be bi-monthly, have set participants on both sides with Bill Hodson, HR Director, to be one of the NIU HR individuals that must be involved in each meeting. Local 1890 does not want this to be another committee where ideas go to die- instead, we would like set people, set dates, set a goal, and have an end date determined in advance.
Local 1890 met with NIU on 6/22 to present our counter. NIU administrators are mulling it over and we go back to the table on 6/29/22 to hear their counter.
We do hope to come to a resolution on 6/29 as both sides are extremely close in what we both want and need. If a resolution is obtained, Local 1890 will email members within 24 hours notifying them of a special meeting to vote on whether or not to ratify the proposal.
As always, we will keep you informed.
In Solidarity,
Local 1890
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Lagoon-A-Palooza Date set
for September 22, 2022
We will keep you informed of the developments!
______________________________________________________
6/10/22 Local 1890 Wage Negotiation Update for FY23
The Local 1890 wage-reopener bargaining team met several times between March and April 2022 and
constructed a proposal to present to NIU at their meeting.
The proposal, presented on May 1st to NIU’s bargaining team Jesse Perez, Derrick Williams, and SAVP/
Human Resources Chief William Hodson, not only addresses low wages, but also wage compression,
while enabling members to receive an increase for years of service.
NIU’s bargaining team had many questions, but not outright dismiss our plan.
We were to go back to the table on May 12th which would allow for NIU’s bargaining team to review our
proposal and come back with a counteroffer, if any.
NIU canceled the May 12th meeting, citing not enough time to go over such a sweeping, comprehensive
plan. The next scheduled bargaining date was June 9th, 2022.
NIU canceled the June 9th meeting, citing they were not yet ready to counter our proposal, and that
SAVP/HRS Chief William Hodson was working on something for us. It was referred to as ‘his baby.’
We are now waiting for NIU to complete their counteroffer and contact us to schedule another
bargaining date.
We will keep you informed when we know more.
In Solidarity,
Local 1890
6/9/22 One-Time Payment of up to $2,500
OTP HRS Letter to the Unions
Last week, we received a memorandum from Bill Hodson, SAVP/Chief Human Resources Officer. The memo outlined, “The Huskie family continued to show tremendous resilience this past year, rising above all the challenges created by the pandemic…we realize that our employees also faced many challenges…..to ease some of that pain, the university is planning to give employees a one-time payment (OTP) to supplement their earnings.” The memo goes on to say “this is possible due to the hard work of everyone…who exercised fiscal restraint….federal aid that helped offset the financial stress….and additional relief from the governor…and it will not affect current or future wage negotiations.” The Board of Trustees must approve this OTP and there are rules regarding who is eligible as stated on the attached memo. If you have any questions regarding your eligibility, please contact us. The union suspects the funds are a ‘use it or lose it’ type of situation for NIU and we would like to do whatever we can to encourage administration to authorize this OTP and help our hard-working members. What we would like for you to do is show your support for this OTP by attending the NIU Board of Trustees meeting at 9am on June 16th in Altgeld 315. If you feel so inclined to attend in person, you can also voice your support and encourage the BoT to approve this OTP by signing up to speak using the public comment form.
In Solidarity,
Local 1890
