Elgin Community College is facing an unfair labor practice complaint being filed against them after allegedly withholding the cost of living wage increases from its police officers. The complaints were filed by the Metropolitan Alliance of Police Chapter 735, which represents the ECC Police Department.

The department joined MAP in 2016 after exhausting their resources in settling a disagreement over wages with the school. According to Officer Joseph Lullo, during the fall of 2015, a new officer was hired to work for the department and was being paid a significantly higher salary than that which was being paid to all of the other officers, including some who had been working at the school for nearly a decade.

According to Lullo, the department attempted to work with the school directly to work out the wage issue but had eventually exhausted their resources.

“All we wanted was for everyone to be paid the same for doing the same work,” Lullo said. “We felt like we had run out of resources through the school so we joined MAP.”

The school and the officers’ union have been negotiating the terms for the officers’ first contract since March of 2017. According to the Chief Marketing and Communications officer, Toya Webb, on average, the negotiations process for a new contract takes approximately 18 months. The school and MAP have already agreed upon 29 articles and have a total of eight outstanding.

“As with every collective bargaining agreement, especially a new one, it is difficult to settle all the issues expeditiously,” Webb said. “These things take time, and since this is a new collective bargaining agreement, we want to make sure that we have a good contract that is fair to both parties.”

The outstanding issues that both parties cannot meet in agreement about are those regarding salary and wages. According to Officer Lullo, in order to meet the officers’ demands, it would cost the school almost $200,000.

Lullo also alleges that this cost should no longer be an issue for the school due to the fact that multiple officers have retired from the department, and no one has filled their positions yet.

During the time of contract negotiations, ECC is required to maintain the status quo with the police officers in regards to their salary and benefits until a new contract is agreed upon. Now, the officers’ union filed a complaint against the school because they have not received a cost of living wage increase since the negotiations began.

The officers’ union alleges that this is not following the status quo and the complaint now awaits review from the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board.

“At no time did the college intentionally violate the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act,” Webb said. “The college has a total of four unions on campus, and it equally respects the rights of each of them.”

According to Lullo, these negotiations have not affected the job performance of the officers but he has noticed that morale has been down.

“ECC is a really pleasant place to work,” Lullo said. “It’s a bit disheartening, as an officer, to have to go through this. If an officer [runs] into a situation where their life is threatened, how can the school decide that one officer’s life is worth more than the other?”

The school and MAP met with a federal mediator for the first time on Aug. 27. The next meeting is expected to happen on Sept. 27.