Another state agency said it has testified before a grand jury for a federal investigation into Eastern’s negotiations with one of its unions.

The director of the State University Civil Service System testified earlier this month before a grand jury that has subpoenaed information related to last year’s contract negotiations between Eastern and the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 399, said Clyde Follmer of Follmer Law Office in Urbana, which represents the civil service system.

Follmer said the civil service system, which enforces civil service employee regulations at state universities, had interactions with both the union and Eastern during the year-long negotiations. He said the grand jury wanted information regarding the SUCSS’s involvement in the negotiations.

The system’s director, Walter Ingerski, testified before the grand jury on April 5, the same day Follmer said members of the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board testified.

Keith Sanders, executive director of the Illinois Board of Higher Education, and Ross Hodel, the IBHE’s legislative liaison, where scheduled to testify before the grand jury regarding the same issue on April 5 as well. The date, however, was postponed, Don Sevener, IBHE spokesman, has said.

The federal investigation has also subpoenaed information regarding the negotiations from the Illinois Department of Labor, House Speaker Michael Madigan, Eastern and the union.

It is still unclear exactly what the investigation is looking for, but the subpoenas served to Eastern and the IBHE request information about the negotiations, faxes from the IDOL about prevailing wage rates, a meeting coordinated by Madigan between Eastern and the union and anything that ties “actions or proposed actions” by state officials about Eastern’s funding to the contract negotiations.

Madigan has said he held two meetings, at the urging of the union, a large contributor to his campaigns, between Eastern and Local 399 in the spring of 2001 to try and get the parties to settle the contract. He has denied pressuring Eastern to settle the contract to the benefit of the union.

University administrators refused to comment on whether Madigan pressured the university about the negotiations because of the “on-going investigation.” However, Rep. Dale Righter, R-Mattoon, has said the university was a “little surprised” and a “little concerned” about Madigan’s involvement.

In addition, documents attached to Eastern’s and the IBHE’s subpoenas show the IDOL sent the university a fax in late May, which stated the prevailing wage for “building operating engineers” and “building operating engineers/stationary” as $29.79 base pay, per hour.

But, Mark Hurley, spokesman for the IDOL, said the base pay for operating engineers in Coles County is listed as $24.10. He wouldn’t comment on the discrepancy between the IDOL’s fax and his listing because of the federal investigation.

Robert Wayland, Eastern’s director of employee and labor relations, said the union was pushing Eastern to pay a prevailing wage rate for operating engineers. However, the union members, which account for 10 Steam Plant employees, are considered “stationary engineers” by the university, a title designated for operators of high- and low-pressure boilers, air conditioning units and heaters.

Building operating engineers work on all of a building’s furnishings, fixtures and equipment, according to the State University Civil Service System’s classifications.

The employees were receiving $21.76 base pay, per hour. Wayland said an increase to $29.79 base pay, per hour, as quoted on the IDOL’s faxes, would be “huge.”

He said if Eastern decided to increase the wage by that much, it would likely have pressured other employers of stationary engineers in Coles County to raise their pay in order to keep employees from leaving and seeking a position at Eastern.

The four-year contract, approved by Eastern’s Board of Trustees on Oct. 15, grants the “lead plant stationary engineer,” the highest paid position, $26.19 for this year and $29.15 base pay, per hour by the end of the four-year contract in 2004.

The BOT estimated the additional cost to the university to be an addition of $136,000 over the life of the contract.

Hurley said the IDOL considers stationary engineers to be the same classification as operating engineers for prevailing wage rate purposes. However, Wayland and Dennis Smith, deputy director of the SUCSS, said the university would be required to use the civil service system’s classification for the negotiations.

While there is a way for employees to appeal their classifications through the civil service system, Follmer said the SUCSS has not received any such complaints from the union.

He also said the university is not forced to pay a prevailing rate, a wage that is required to be paid to tradesmen working on public projects. He said a public university’s non-academic employees are exempt from the requirement. But he said the SUCSS is supposed to honor the “principle” of the Illinois Prevailing Wage Act.

Follmer said the SUCSS will accept the prevailing wage as what the negotiation between the two parties determines it to be.

“If (the agreement) is two or three dollars over or under the prevailing rate we find that perfectly acceptable,” he said.

Discussions between a public university, the SUCSS and a negotiating union is “not unusual,” Follmer said.

“We listened to what (the union and Eastern) had to say and encouraged them to go back to the bargaining table,” he said about the SUCSS involvement in the negotiations.

The IELRB’s involvement in the negotiations may stem from a grievance that the union filed with the board shortly after its contract with the university expired in June of 2000. The grievance stated the university was not bargaining in good faith because it would not offer a prevailing wage to the union.

Wayland has said the complaint was deemed to have enough merit by IELRB investigator to go before an administrative law judge, but before a hearing was held the union dropped the complaint after a contract was reached in September of 2001.

The board, whose members include Janis Cellini, a Local 399 lobbyist, and Michael Gavin, the union’s vice president, never provided Eastern proof that a prevailing wage needed to be offered, or what the wage should have been, Wayland has said.

It is not clear why the IBHE is involved in the situation, but Righter said he contacted Sanders after he found out Madigan was contacting Eastern. He said he asked Sanders to make sure nothing improper was going on, and Righter said Sanders “didn’t make any promises.”

Follmer said he had no idea why the IBHE would be involved in the negotiations. He also said the SUCSS had no contact with the IDOL, IELRB, IBHE or Madigan about the negotiations.

He said the SUCSS has “no idea” why the federal investigation is taking place, and he said the IELRB officials he talked with at the hearing April 5 “had no idea either.”

Federal subpoenas in labor negotiation

-Illinois Board of Higher Education: Keith Sanders, executive director; Ross Hodel, legislative liaison

-Illinois Department of Labor

-Illinois Education Labor Relations Board

-State University Civil Service System: Walter Ingerski, director

-The International Union of Operating Engineers Local 399