A public housing authority in Illinois that has been plagued by mismanagement and other problems provided generous retirement contracts to employees just before the director left. The contracts were negotiated with employees represented by the Laborers' International Union of North America Local 773.
The terms of the retirement agreements are all different, and it seems as if they were negotiated outside the normal process for union employees.
Illinois Labor Relations Board general counselor Helen Kim says there's a general expectation that a public sector employer only negotiate with the union representative of the collective bargaining unit about benefits for union employees.
The former Alexander County Housing Authority director James Wilson previously defended the contracts as cost-saving moves designed to save the housing authority money.
