Don't Push Us!

ILLINOIS

It took a 13-day strike to force the Madison County board to back down and acknowledge a brazen act of discrimination. The issue was the premium for family health care, $887 a month per worker. The county had been paying 70 percent of that premium for members of an independent union made up predominantly of men — but zero percent for members of Local 799, a large majority of whom are women.

When negotiations lagged, the more than 420 union members — court clerks, nurses, probation officers and technical workers — walked out. Shryl Kohrumel, an office cashier in the circuit court's traffic division, says, "We can't let them push us into a corner." Points out 12-year probation officer Doug Durrell: "We just want a fair deal."

The strike ended when the county relented and agreed to pay from 50 to 70 percent of the family premium. Members of the local overwhelmingly ratified the four-year contract, which also included a lump-sum bonus equal to 3 percent of last year's salary followed by annual 3-percent wage increases ending in 2008.