A look at wages, benefits at health district, where union drive is underway
Sep. 30—CHAMPAIGN — The Champaign-Urbana Public Health District has responded to a public-records request from The News-Gazette for information about current wages and benefits for employees after a large group of them recently declared plans to organize a union.
Of the district's 148 employees, 20 of which are in management, "nearly 100" are coming together to organize a union under the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31, according to AFSCME. Their plans were announced in a Sept. 23 open letter signed by 21 employees that was posted on the AFSCME website.
The letter signed by union organizers says their concerns about fairness in the workplace and wages "are not new."
"In the past, efforts to unionize were met with both promises of improvements and anti-union practices by the administration. Promises were not kept," the letter states. "The result is stagnant wages, loss of quality staff and diminished workplace conditions. As we are burdened with unprecedented inflation and a seemingly never-ending public health crisis, the time to organize is now."
"We certainly support all workers' right to organize, including C-UPHD's," said health district Administrator Julie Pryde. "We just encourage everyone to do their due diligence."
Pryde said she was unable to further discuss the organizing effort, but in response to a public-records request from The News-Gazette, Human Resources Director Patricia Robinson supplied information about current employees' wages and benefits.
On July 1, employees were given an across-the-board 4 percent raise, according to the information shared with The News-Gazette. That followed a 7 percent raise for the previous fiscal year that began July 1, 2021.
Benefits for full-time employees include, on an annual basis, 14 paid holidays, 12 paid sick days, two weeks vacation time during the first year, three weeks starting in the third year and five weeks after 10 years, Robinson said. Part-time employees get prorated paid time off.
Benefits also include health insurance, the premiums for which are 90 percent paid by the health district. The district picks up 73 percent of the premium for an employee-plus-one-dependent plan and 66 percent of the family-coverage premium.
The district also provides a pension and an on-site gym and makes remote work days and/or flexible-schedule work days available, and employees can opt for a payroll deduction for pet insurance.
Other than managers and medical providers, most full-time employees earn salaries in the range of $30,000 to $60,000 annually, depending on the positions.
According to a statement on the AFSCME Council 31 website, employees said they have worked many hours of uncompensated overtime during the pandemic.
"During COVID, my coworkers were told to fill out time sheets indicating they worked only eight hours a day and no more than 40 hours a week, even if they worked much more," said Aaron Umbarger, a harm-reduction specialist at the health district.
"Our comp-time policies are supposed to give us all time off for extra hours worked, but inconsistent rules across departments and the pressure of a huge workload often made it impossible for my coworkers to use the comp time they were due."
Health district nurse practitioner Jennifer Enoch said she has witnessed anti-Black racism and ageism from supervisors over the past few years.
"When I tried to address it with them, it was made clear my input was unwelcome," she said.
