Competitive wages focus of new union contract for DeKalb County nursing center employees

SYCAMORE – Higher wages to attract more employees was a focal point for the newly approved three-year labor contract for union workers at the DeKalb County Rehabilitation and Nursing Center.

The contract recently was approved and ratified by the union. It also was approved by the DeKalb County Board this month.

Erik Thorson, spokesperson for American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31 Local No. 3537, said equitably increasing wages while keeping up with Illinois’ rising minimum wage was the primary goal of the union during negotiations with DeKalb County.

“We don’t want to just be at minimum wage,” Thorson said. “We want to be able to attract folks to those positions. And how to do you balance that with providing equitable increases across the board for the higher paid titles, and how do you balance that with the need to attract certain staff in the front line and direct care positions? The settlement isn’t as simple as a flat percentage cost of living increase. There were adjustments that were made per title that were very necessary, frankly, to making those titles competitive.”

For more than a year, workers at the rehabilitation center were expecting a change of management. In 2022, the DeKalb County Board voted to approve a sale of the facility to a private buyer. The sale was prompted after DeKalb County officials in March 2021 discovered a $7 million budget shortfall at the facility, leaving the center unable to make its own payroll without additional financial aid approved by the County Board.

“We don’t want to just be at minimum wage. We want to be able to attract folks to those positions.”

—  Erik Thorson, spokesperson for AFSCME 31 Local No. 3537

The union and DeKalb County last reached an agreement in fall 2022, but at the time the pending $8.3 million contract to sell the facility was the focus of the negotiations.

The anticipated sale was expected to close by the end of 2022, but nine months into 2023 the buyers sought to leave the sale contract. In November, DeKalb County filed a lawsuit against the buyers for the failed sale. A DeKalb County judge is expected to hear the lawsuit at its first hearing Thursday.

DeKalb County Administrator Brian Gregory said the union negotiated with DeKalb County in good faith during the Jan. 17 board meeting. Gregory said he was happy the agreement allows the county to continue efforts to make the facility solvent with a plan created by consulting firm Jordan Healthcare.

“This is consistent with the Jordan Healthcare plan, as it relates to the DCRNC,” Gregory said. “I just want to point out Erik Thorson is here, he’s the AFSCME staff rep for this union and just want to thank him ... for bargaining in good faith and reaching an agreement that should help us move forward.”

Thorson said even though the union spent most of 2023 expecting to negotiate with new private owners, it was good fortune the sale contract between the county and private buyers fell through when it did.

”This was serendipitous. ... And it happened to fortuitously line up that we didn’t start negotiating until I believe early November,” Thorson said. “By then, the sale had kind of abated. We had already known it was not a possibility going forward. By the time we started negotiating the County Board had, I believe, vote unanimously that they were going to provide more investment to the nursing home and try to retain it, and make it a self sustaining county entity ... We didn’t have to negotiate under uncertainty of who the owners or employers was going to be.”