By Eric Stock

BLOOMINGTON – McLean County emergency dispatchers won’t be leaving the bargaining table for long, after agreeing to a short-term contract that’s a year overdue.

The County Board has agreed to a new collective bargaining agreement for 23 dispatchers at MetCom. They will receive pay increases of 2.75 percent over two years. They had been working without a contract since the end of 2015. So the latest contract will expire at the end of 2017.

County Administrator Bill Wasson said the county didn’t want to agree to more than two years with so much budget uncertainty.

“It’s always a challenge but especially in these challenging economic times I think both parties ultimately agree that shorter-term agreements allow us both to respond if economics change,” Wasson said.

The county has come to contract terms with three of its four unions.

The county previously approved a three-year contract for AFSCME Local 537 which covers 18 Highway Department employees. The contract calls for annual pay raises of 2.5 percent.

Those workers include truck drivers, laborers and snow plow operators.

McLean County previously came to terms with sheriff’s deputies on a three-year contract that provides for 3 percent pay increases in a contract that is set retroactively to 2015.

Corrections officers have been working without a contract since the start of last year.

The County Board in November approved a 2017 budget which gave non-union workers salary increases of 1.75 percent.

Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].