Chicago election employees say board is blocking their unionizing effort

Chicago is famous for its hard-fought elections, but the agency that oversees those political contests is facing a battle of its own — with some of its own employees.

They say are overworked and underpaid by the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners. And an effort this summer to form a union has been met with stiff resistance by the board’s lawyers.

A union organizer spoke Tuesday at a Chicago Board of Election Commissioners meeting about the "legal holding pattern" they find themselves in.

"Sadly, the board has responded [to the unionizing effort] by filing frivolous objections, withholding crucial overtime pay and creating an atmosphere of fear and retaliation," SEIU Local 73 organizer Nicole Deming told the board.

Low pay is the biggest concern for Geneva Morris, a clerk at the electoral agency, where she's worked for over 20 years. Morris and another employee said their wage scale tops out in the mid-$60,000s.

"There are people who came before me. To see people work hard and their pensions look like pennies — you can barely live on it," Morris told the Sun-Times during a break from an election judges class she was teaching.

Max Bever, director of communications for the board, said in an email, said: "This is pending litigation with outside counsel and I cannot provide comment at this time."

The unionizing campaign began in July when 55 of the 80 potentially eligible workers signed union cards, Deming said. Since a petition to unionize was filed with the state's labor board, SEIU alleges the city elections board has tied up the effort in court.

Deming said the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners has filed six objections to the petition to organize. One objection is that unionizing would break an employee prohibition of political activity, which Deming said is not the case.

SEIU does endorse political candidates, but no union dues are used to fund political activity, Deming said. SEIU 73 already represents employees of the Cook County Electoral Board, Deming said.

"It's time for the board to acknowledge our union fairly," Deming told the city elections board. "We have had enough of these games. We insist that the commissioners begin negotiations with us promptly."

Deming said they represent a variety of city election board employees, including clerks, equipment specialists, community relations translators and information technology employees. The organizing campaign does not include any of the 5,888 election judges for the Nov. 5 presidential election.

Odel Sterling, a polling place investigator, said he still makes a yearly salary in the mid-$60,000 range.

"I've been here 36 years," he told the Sun-Times. "That don't add up."

Sterling said staff are often overworked, and that he once worked four months in a row, seven days a week. He said he can count on his hands how often he's gotten off on the holidays of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Presidents Day, which fall within the local election season.

The Chicago Board of Election Commissioners is chaired by Marisel A. Hernandez, who also works at the law firm Jacobs Burns Orlove & Hernandez, which represents public and private sector labor unions. Her employee bio says she worked at the National Labor Relations Board in New York and Chicago and at the Chicago office of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission prior to joining the firm in 1988.

In other news at the board meeting, officials said more than 260,000 vote-by-mail ballots will be sent starting Thursday. Early voting begins Oct. 3 at the downtown Supersite at 191 N. Clark St. and the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners' offices at 69 W. Washington St.