A large University of Illinois employee union has approved a three-year contract with the Urbana-Champaign campus. Local 3700 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees OK'd the pact tentatively agreed to last month. The deal affects about 1,000 clerical, child-care, library support staff and other university employees, along with about 300 in University of Illinois Extension offices across the state.
The agreement provides a 2.5 percent across-the-board pay increase dating to Aug. 31, 2014 _ the same given to other employees last summer. Longevity and ``step'' pay increases typically earned as employees gain seniority are frozen during the deal. Child-development workers will also get a one-time $200 bonus on July 1.