Lake County Health Department employees are moving forward with unionization efforts with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31, which will bring about 600 county staff under the union’s umbrella.
Last week, the workers filed a majority-interest petition with the Illinois Labor Relations Board, according to a news release. The board will verify that the petition includes the signatures of a majority of employees and certify the bargaining unit. This process could take several weeks or months, union organizers said.
AFSCME already represents employees of the Lake County chief judge, circuit clerk and coroner, according to the release. It has 1.4 million members nationwide, including 90,000 active and retired members in Illinois.
Roberta Lynch, AFSCME executive director, said the union is “gratified” to have the health department employees join its “union family.”
“Coming together in a strong union gives public-service workers the power to make things better for themselves and their families, their communities and the people they serve,” Lynch said.
Cameron Crombie is an environmental health practitioner in training with the health department, who was part of the organizing efforts. While he said those efforts began last year, it’s “been a long time coming,” with other attempts going back years.
There are “lots of different things for lots of different people,” Crombie said, although he noted pay was a driver for many. A previous compensation study carried out by the county had found that the department’s pay was 7% below the market rate in the area, he said.
“We are one of the lowest-paying health departments in the area,” he said. “The result of that was we got less than 7% raises.”
According to the release, beyond better pay, health department workers were motivated to unionize to reduce turnover, improve transparency and accountability from upper management, and seek greater job security in a time of “uncertainty and threatened federal funding cuts.”
“As LCHD employees, we deserve to have a voice. Joining AFSCME allows us to have the much-needed input we deserve,” said Erika Lavin, a group home counselor and a member of the union organizing committee. “Organizing as a union affords us an opportunity to advocate for better wages, work conditions and benefits. This, in turn, will ultimately improve the quality of services we deliver.”
The benefits aren’t just for employees, Crombie said. The boosted morale among workers creates a better work environment, and means better services to the community. And improved compensation will increase employee retention, helping build and maintain institutional knowledge.
Crombie noted there’s a “big gap” in staff demographics, with employees having either been there decades, or only a few years. Newer employees can’t draw on the same knowledge base as more senior staff, and as older employees leave, they take their institutional knowledge with them.
“We need to develop that for the county,” he said.
There’s still more work ahead, but Crombie expressed his excitement to have taken part. There will be an upcoming vote regarding job classes, which could either combine or divide workers between “professional” and “nonprofessional.” Crombie advocated for voting to combine the classes, which he said would make the bargaining unit stronger.
