Jay Ferraro

The union now has a chance to respond with an alternative proposal before the Library Board takes a final vote, said Jay Ferraro, a union representative for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3350.

"Our goal is to go through the information to see if there are ways we can keep the libraries open the hours they are open now, to keep Lewis Lemon open, and basically, to see if there are other alternatives that can save some jobs," Ferraro said.

Ferraro said the union on Monday received a thick packet of new information from the library and the new deadline.
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Ferraro said he wasn't sure whether the union could come up with an alternative package that would entirely cover the shortfall, but said it would be close.

After that meeting, Jay Ferraro, representative of Local 473 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said the number of projected library employee layoffs is now closer to 14.

Jay Ferraro, regional representative, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

Food-service workers ratified their tentative agreement Monday, said Jay Ferraro, staff representative of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31.
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It is up to the School Board to approve the two-year agreement that Ferraro said would give food service workers a 3.8 percent wage increase the first year and a 3 percent increase the second.

Ferraro also represents bus drivers and paraprofessional staff.He said negotiations have been difficult because of the lack of a state budget, which determines a large portion of a school district's budget.

Bus drivers have requested a mediator.Ferraro said the sides have yet to meet with the mediator and will meet without one on Friday.

Ferraro said the paraprofessional union appears to be closing in on a tentative deal.

Jay Ferraro, a union representative for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees representing about 130 of the affected employees, said the union is not on board with the changes and plans to file grievances objecting to the reduced hours.

The union's contract with the circuit clerk's office guarantees union employees 40 hours of work a week, Ferraro said. County leaders disagree that the contract involves any such guarantee. Ferraro also is disappointed that the county is not considering the union's offer to go with a four-day, 10-hour workweek.

'A bunch of nonsense' "I think it's a bunch of nonsense," Ferraro said.

"If kids don't go home with three pounds of candy, that's unusual," parade chairman Jay Ferraro said.
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Ferraro, union staff representative for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said the hope is that kids and adults take home more than candy when the parade wraps up.

"What we do with the parade is we want to show the public and the kids out there all the things that we do," he said.There are 20,000 labor workers in Winnebago County, he added.

"We've had this (union) since 1984, and this was probably the first setting that we actually came into that the chairman expressed, along with the County Board, that this year's negotiations were going to be a lot different than before," said Jay Ferraro, business agent for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 473.

We'll go to the table, ask for a reasonable contract and see what happens," said Jay Ferraro, a representative for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 473.

Ferraro wouldn't say how much of an employee wage increase he's asking for.The contract approved by the County Board in October 2003 included a 3 percent raise in 2003 and either a 2 percent or 3 percent raise last year.