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McLean County Wraps Up Third Labor Contract And Starts Prep For More

Charlie Schlenker
/
WGLT

The McLean County Board has signed off on a labor agreement with jail guards.

It's a two-year contract that expires at the end of this year. County Administrator Bill Wasson said they will head right back into negotiations.

"We had been in arbitration with another Fraternal Order of Police Unit which concluded a few months ago. That, in all likelihood, delayed this until now," said Wasson.

Wasson said the collective bargaining agreement involving includes a 3 percent pay hike last year and this year, even though that is above the inflation rate.

"It mirrors the arbitration ruling we received for the other FOP contract, and we did not feel we were in an enviable place to take up the cost of an arbitration," said Wasson.

The budget impact is about $90,000 per year.

Wasson said the county hopes to avoid major changes to the budget from retroactive pay and the increased expense moving forward by using savings generated through employee attrition.

Wasson said there is always a lag in hiring for vacancies and new hires tend to be at lower pay rates than those for outgoing workers.

There are 65 people in the bargaining unit.

County Government has now settled three contracts in the last several months, with sheriff's deputies, MetCom dispatchers, and now jail guards.

WGLT Senior Reporter Charlie Schlenker has spent more than three award-winning decades in radio. He lives in Normal with his family.
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