Peoria’s AFSCME school-bus staffers reach agreement

 Peoria Local 3716 of the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees late last month reached a Tentative Agreement with Peoria Public School for a three-year contract that includes yearly wage increases of 5%, 4.5% and 4%, finally settled with the involvement of PPS Superintendent Sharon Desmoulin-Kherat.

Facing pay and insurance costs behind the rest of the District’s workers, AFSCME met at the bargaining table about 15 times, according to Nick Richards, a Staff Representative with AFSCME Council 31.

“We’d been going back and forth on different issues but were met with great resistance [from PPS’ negotiators],” Richards said.

The difference may have been a conversation between Local President Tim Sullivan and Desmoulin-Kherat.

“The last time, there was a feeling there wasn’t enough,” Richards said, “especially for wages for the drivers and monitors. The union really helped [the District] during COVID, and the superintendent appreciated that and said to contact her if it would ever help. So we made that call, had a sidebar-meeting and conversation, and slowly closed the gap [in bargaining].”

The proposed settlement – which at press time had no ratification vote scheduled – also includes some retroactive pay and a $1,000 retention bonus payable in June, said Richards, who added that another key was improvement in health insurance.

“We’ll now fall in line with the rest of the district,” he said.

Before, the district paid $5,279 for a single worker, and that was increased to about $6,300. PPS formerly paid $8,146 for family coverage, and that will become about $15,000. Also, the district will pay about $10,000 for a single worker and a spouse. A 2% annual increase also is built in.

The previous contract expired last June.