While Teamster officials worked the back room Thursday, Cook County Board President John Stroger went into a closed session with the County Board, confident that he could defeat a plan to give sheriff’s deputies an 8 percent pay raise.
When he emerged two hours later, he was reserved, assured that the board was behind him, yet preferring to play the role of diplomat to avoid labor unrest.
With guarantees from Stroger that negotiations were still possible, the board recessed its session until Monday to give Stroger time to meet with Teamster officials to work out a settlement.
“We had the votes, but that wasn’t the issue,” Stroger said. “I don’t want to give the idea that we are union-breakers. We are not.”
James Hogan, president of Teamsters Local 714, said union officials were willing to reopen negotiations even though they had already won a decision from an arbitrator awarding the deputies the 8 percent pay raise. “We have always been willing to talk, and that is what we intend to do,” said Hogan. “The issue is can the county offer us something better.”
The dispute was prompted by a decision by an arbitrator last year that gave the 1,600 deputies in the Court Services Division a 4.5 percent raise for 1995 and an 8 percent hike for 1996. A raise for the third year of the contract was left to future negotiations.
Although the board accepted the 4.5 percent raise, it rejected the 8 percent increase as excessive. Stroger said the 8 percent would leave the county vulnerable during negotiations with other unions that would want as generous a raise.
The decision put the majority, normally pro-labor Democrats, in the difficult position of having to oppose a union.
The union tried to take advantage of that. On Thursday, Hogan and his brother, William, head of Teamster Joint Council 25, as well as former state Sen. William Marovitz, lobbied commissioners to support the union’s position.
Ultimately, the board opted for delay, figuring new negotiations were preferable to the uncertainties of fighting the arbitrator’s decision before the Illinois Labor Relations Board or in court.
Union officials said their next step was to appeal the county’s decision in court or to the labor board.
“We are sort of between a rock and a hard place,” said Commissioner Danny Davis, one of the few board members who has vocally opposed Stroger on the issue.
“We have people who need to have a liveable wage. At the same time, the county has to try to do its business without raising taxes,” he said.
County officials say the 8 percent raise would cost $3.1 million. Stroger said that wouldn’t lead to financial ruin, but that similar increases for all county employees whose contracts are being negotiated would cost about $50 million.
