As negotiations continue for a labor agreement between College of DuPage and the union representing full-time faculty, the Glen Ellyn college’s board approved a contract with the school’s police union that includes raises for the next four years.
The three-and-a-half-year contract with the Fraternal Order of Police includes a 2.85 percent raise effective Feb. 25 until June 30 of this year. For the next three years, salaries will increase 3.15 percent, 3.55 percent and 4.15 percent, respectively, according to a college summary of the contract. Trustees unanimously approved the agreement Tuesday. It affects the college’s 16 full-time patrol officers, sergeants, dispatchers and a community service operator.
But the contract also significantly raises insurance premiums, and those affected by the contract will no longer be eligible for a full tuition waiver at the school, instead receiving a waiver for two thirds the cost of tuition.
The board approved the contract without discussion on Tuesday night after a closed session meeting that lasted about an hour. The contract between the college and the FOP expired June 30.
Meanwhile, College of DuPage President Robert Breuder said Tuesday he expects to have to use a mediator to develop an agreement between the school and its faculty association.
On Tuesday night, more than 100 members of the college’s faculty packed into the board’s meeting quarters in an effort to show “solidarity with their negotiations team” that has been working for 11 months on a labor agreement, according to a memo from the association’s president and a photography professor at the school, Glenn Hansen. The contract for full-time teachers expired in August.
Hansen said he is unsure of what’s holding up the contract because school and union officials agreed to not disclose details of negotiations to anyone, but the slow process is causing concerns among faculty.
“It’s a distraction for everybody when you’re always wondering what’s coming,” Hansen said. “You don’t know why it’s hung up and so that’s an issue on everybody’s mind.”
After Tuesday’s meeting, Breuder said the faculty contract needs to be “in line with current circumstances,” referencing the economic downtown.
“The economy that we have today is dramatically different than what we’ve enjoyed for the last 15 years … and it argues for a different set of circumstances today, and that’s what we have to pursue in this contract,” Breuder said.
In the 2007-08 school year, the first year the most recent contract between faculty and the college began, most teachers made between $41,428 and $112,684, depending on years of experience and level of education. By the 2010-11 school year, the range increased to $45,270 to $123,134, according to the contract.
Breuder said he hopes to bring a new contract before the board by the end of May.
