City starts process to end pay freeze for employees

Mayor Guy Alongi and the Du Quoin City Council plan to reinstate raises to the employees whose pay has been frozen since the beginning of the year.

Pay for the city's laborers and nonunion employees was frozen on Jan. 1 and was expected to continue to be frozen until at least July. But the drop-off in revenue expected from the pandemic did not materialize, and the council voted this week to start the process that will end the salary freeze. If the council passes the measure at its April 26 meeting, employees can expect to see their raises starting with their May 7 checks.

Last month, after looking at satisfactory March revenues, Alongi telegraphed that he might be willing to end the salary freeze ahead of schedule, if the April numbers followed suit.

"I was pretty well convinced at the last meeting," he said Thursday. "I was looking ahead and thought the numbers would hold for April, and they have.

"We are going to go back and honor the existing contract."

Earlier in the spring, the city gave $350 stipends to all the employees whose pay was frozen. Effectively, that gave those employees their raises for the period Jan. 1 to April 30.

Now, when employees start getting their raises again on May 7, the city and employees will essentially be even.

Meanwhile, Alongi said he expects negotiations on a new police contract to resume in late May or early June. Du Quoin patrolmen have been working without a new contract since Dec. 31, when the old contract expired. Negotiations were suspended, however, until the city determined what would happen with the frozen pay.

When a contract expires, it remains in effect until a new one is ratified.

Alongi said he has no regrets about implementing the pay freeze on the nonunion employees and negotiating for one with the Laborers Union Local #773.

"I think the things we and union did saved a couple jobs," Alongi added.

He said the Laborers Union was very receptive to what the city was asking, and that both sides ultimately wanted to get through the pandemic without laying anyone off.

Should the city's economy unexpectedly fall off going forward, "I would feel very comfortable asking them to come back to the table," the mayor said.