Oak Park Village Employees To Return To Work, Negotiations
OAK PARK, Ill. (CBS) -- Oak Park village employees were set to return to work Tuesday, after a three-day strike.
The Chicago Tribune reported the about 76 village employees were returning to work on Tuesday, following the strike from Saturday to Monday after workers and village officials were unable to reach a contract.
The Oak Park Village Hall remained open Monday, but village employees were picketing outside.
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Service Employees International Union spokesman Adam Rosen said Monday that the village was proposing a 1 percent pay raise and a possible merit pay raise. But workers were not satisfied with that proposal.
"One parking enforcement officer makes $700 more than the person he has to train who just starts under him, and he's been here 17 years," Rosen said. "He's never received a merit increase."
Oak Park village spokesman David Powers says people should be paid based on performance.
"Based on past evaluations, probably nearly two thirds – 60 percent, 65 percent of the union members – would get that merit pay," Powers said.
But the union said those top evaluations were given last year, when there was no merit pay in the workers' contract as there had been in previous years.
Negotiations were expected to resume on Tuesday.
