Aurora/Management Meeting Summary

On 3/31/2025 from 1pm-2pm, BI Aurora union representation met with upper management.

Internal Training

Training was the largest focal point of the meeting, as upper management has been saying for years that senior specialists will all be trained on the same things across the board and that everyone will know Cook County calls amongst other training issues. Management confirmed that it will not be another 2-3 year wait to see results of training but we can expect to see results within the next 6 months. Management did provide a list of internal employees that are pending training for a multitude of skills.

PTO Rescission

We discussed the change made to PTO requests where employees are no longer able to rescind a request if the time requested is within 3 weeks. There was not much progress made to this during the limited time we had to meet, but management did say they are open to ideas that could work better for both the company and the employees. The union will draft as many valid suggestions as possible for a future meeting designated to this topic.

Mandatory Overtime

Lastly, we spoke about the dreaded mandatory overtime that is now being utilized at BI Aurora. Management stated they have been struggling to fill necessary spots and are using mandated overtime as a last resort. However, they did advise this does not have to be permanent and is based on business needs. I will remind everyone that mandatory overime has been in the GEO handbook for years, long before we joined NFFE, so getting rid of mandatory overtime in its entirety will be impossible. However, signing up for the slots of your preference will both ensure you and other employees are never mandated to work a slot you do not want to work.

We also spoke of pending grievance cases and other personal issues that will not be discussed publicly. With the limited time we had, we tried to tackle a variety of topics. We will set up another meeting in the future to address additional needs/issues.

If you have any suggestions, comments, fears, etc, please leave them below. This meeting was called due to a small handful of employees voicing their opinions, so rest assured we will continue pushing every issue we receive up the ladder. The goal is to ensure everyone’s voice is heard. If we have enough voices, make enough noise, we can trigger changes in our favor.