CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WCIA) — Nearly 100 Champaign-Urbana Public Health District employees signed a card in support of unionizing.
The signatures are inching closer to the majority needed to join the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 31 in Springfield, according to organizing member and CUPHD case manager/counselor Darya Shahgheibi.
Shahgheibi is among a committee of organizers who penned a public letter late last week to say they are fighting for “fair pay, transparency, and equal opportunities.”
An equity council was formed among CUPHD staff last year, Shahgheibi said.
“We’ve tried hard to fight for equity, workplace equity, workplace rights and have not been successful. And so that’s when we decided a legally binding contract that helps serve the workers is something that we need,” she expressed in an interview Monday.
Shahgheibi was quoted in a press release from the union
Shahgheibi listed “favoritism, unfair policies, and discrimination” as issues that “plague [her] working environment,” in a press release from AFSCME.
“One thing that I think is important to highlight is that during COVID, there was clear favoritism shown in different departments regarding who would work extra hours, who was made to work extra hours, who was fairly compensated for those hours worked, and who was told to put down that they worked 40 hours when they actually worked 50 or 60,” she elaborated to WCIA 3.
The exact number of signatures still needed wasn’t readily available, but Shahgheibi and AFSCME staff representative Christina De Angelo said they are close.
The next step would be to submit those cards to the Illinois Labor Relations Board to certify AFSCME as the union representative and the collective bargaining process would begin from there.
Public health administrator Julie Pryde declined questions but said in a statement to WCIA 3 that she is “supportive of all workers’ rights to organize.”
READ HER FULL STATEMENT BELOW:
“I am supportive of all workers’ right to organize, including CUPHD’s employees. I encourage everyone involved to do their due diligence during this exploratory phase, and remember that we are all working towards the goal of better programs and service for the community we serve.”