Labor board to hear local union claims
Source: By Patrick Ferrell, Herald News (IL), April 1, 2008
NEW LENOX -- The Illinois Labor Relations Board has requested a hearing over whether the New Lenox Fire Protection District improperly reassigned 55 part-time firefighters in April as they were in the midst of unionizing.
........ At issue is whether the district should have negotiated with Service Employees International Union Local 73 before it took away all shift work from its part-timers, instead privatizing the department's entire firefighting ranks as the part-timers successfully culminated their unionization attempts.
........ The district has contended all along that it privatized all of its ranks because it was having difficulty filling the four of 12 daily shifts set aside for part-timers.