Statement from District 15:
Dear District 15 Community member,
As you are probably aware, the District is investigating the best way to provide safe, efficient, professional and reliable transportation services for the children it serves. The Board is currently negotiating with the DTU (District Transportation Union) to obtain a collective bargaining agreement. Simultaneously, the Board is seeking bids for outsourcing transportation to use in evaluating the best option for transporting our students.
The Board and the administration wanted to update you on the current status of this process. Below are a list of myths and facts that will help you understand the current status of negotiations with the DTU. As you will see, the DTU has
canceled scheduled negotiation sessions and only agreed to meet on April 16th.
Please contact Darlene Von Behren (vonbehrd@ccsd15.net) if you have any questions or concerns.
Myth Fact MYTH: The DTU desires to meet with the District to negotiate a new agreement. FACT: The Board gave notice to the Union to start negotiations in December. The Union initially refused to meet, and then only agreed to meet after multiple requests by the District. MYTH: The Transportation Union is ready and willing to negotiate with the District. FACT: The Board proposed 6 meeting dates. The Union initially would only accept 4 dates. After meeting twice in February, the Union cancelled the remaining 2 scheduled dates and refused to meet again until April. The Board continues to reserve these dates. MYTH: The Transportation Union intends to negotiate in good faith with the District. FACT: During each of the 2 negotiation sessions held thus far, the Union was unprepared, refused to present any proposals and refused to respond to the Board’s proposal. MYTH: The Board desires to outsource. FACT: In order to be fiscally responsible to the taxpayers of the District, the Board directed the administration to investigate the costs of outsourcing. At no time did the board make a final decision to outsource, just to gather information to help make informed decisions. In fact, the Board made an initial contract proposal on February 25th which maintains current salaries, access to health benefits, and allows employees to remain active in the IMRF pension system. MYTH: The DTU wants to secure a contract. FACT: To date, the DTU has not offered any proposal, nor has it responded to the Board’s initial proposal. It canceled the remaining negotiating sessions and refused to meet until April 16th. The Board’s negotiating team continues to be willing to meet to negotiate a contract. MYTH: The DTU is concerned that the uncertainty of future employment is creating undue stress on its members and wants to settle a new contract. FACT: The Board’s negotiating team implored the DTU group to keep negotiating to avoid the unnecessary action of issuing the 90 day layoff notices to all DTU members (as required by law). DTU refused to meet and stated that they were not concerned by the Board taking this action. MYTH: The DTU members are not compensated fairly. FACT: DTU employees have received salary increases exceeding the consumer price index (CPI) for the last four years , and in many cases, received 4%+ raises annually (equaling over 16% total increase for 4 years.)
Click here to read the DTU statement in response.
