Du Quoin council finalizes reinstatement of raises

The Du Quoin City Council, as expected, reinstated on Monday the 2021 raises for the city's laborers and nonunion workers.

City workers who agreed to take a pay freeze at the beginning of 2021 (or are nonunion and were compelled to take the freeze) will start to see the 54-cent an hour raise in their checks next week.

The pay freezes came about because of fears that the city would be in a precarious financial situation in 2021 due to the economic slowdown caused by COVID-19. The Laborers Union agreed to take the freeze.

The city's finances, however, continued to remain stable throughout the worst of the pandemic, and city officials decided they could afford to reinstate the raises.

The workers will have been made whole, because they received a lump sum $350 payment the first week of March, which essentially paid their raise through April 30.

Now, said Mayor Guy Alongi, the city is hoping to restart contract negotiations with the city's patrolmen within 30 days. The last contract with police officers ended without a new one being signed, and officers have been working under the provisions of the old contract.

Meanwhile, the department's four sergeants have petitioned the Illinois Labor Relations Board to be included in the collective bargaining unit that includes the city's patrol officers and the dispatchers. No ruling has been made.