Carol Sibley, preventive medicine coordinator for Health Services, is frustrated.

It has been nearly five months since the last meeting with the university. It has been at least two years since their last pay increase. But the employees of Health Services are nowhere closer to signing a contract that will give them higher wages.

Sibley, who sits on the negotiation panel, said NIU has the lowest-paid health care workers when compared to other in-state universities. One example she gives is a registered nurse who, with 29 years of experience and a bachelor’s degree, made only $14.45 an hour before leaving.

They are starting to publicize the issue more. On Oct. 13, coinciding with NIU’s Open House, chalkings demanding better wages were on the steps of the Campus Life Building, among other places. Health Services workers have put similar demands on their car windows and have left fliers in parking lots.

But while the awareness is nice, what Sibley wants is pay parity.

“We really want parity with what University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is getting,” Sibley said in regards to wages.

Steve Cunningham, associate vice president of Administration and Human Resources, said that the wages of UIUC health care workers are just one standard of comparison. He said, in regards to Sibley’s claim that NIU’s health care workers are the lowest paid in the state, that “the comparative salary range differs by classification and type of setting. This subject is one topic of discussion between the parties.”

Because they are bargaining with the university, Health Services employees were not included in the past two pay raises, Sibley said. Cunningham said these things are bargained over when a party is determined to be negotiating by the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board.

“The Health Services employees involved are certainly eligible for subsequent raises,” Cunningham wrote in an e-mail. “However, these raises are subject to negotiations between the parties and the implementation of such raises will follow the conclusion of that process and ratification of the collective bargaining agreement by both parties.”

According to Sibley, the low wages are affecting the department’s ability to attract and keep employees.

“We feel that you want a good caliber of people,” Sibley said. “But it’s hard to do if you can’t recruit and retain people here.”

Sibley said that when she first started working at NIU in 1989, Health Services had eight nurse practitioners. The last one left to work at Walgreen’s Co., where she earns more money for the same kind of work. She was contacted, but declined to be interviewed for this article.

Another source of frustration for Sibley is what she describes as the university being “slow to coming to the table.” She said meetings are hard to set up. Because of the lack of progress, James Sheridan, president of the local chapter of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), thinks the representatives do not actually have the authority to make a contract. AFSCME is a union that partners with Health Services, Building Services, and Food Services during negotiations.

Cunningham denied this, stating that the representatives involved can make contracts.

“However, nothing compels either party to make agreements that they are not prepared to undertake,” Cunningham wrote. Cunningham stated that an agreement will eventually be worked out that will give the health services workers pay raises. The process is taking longer because it is a first contract.

“It is not unusual for a first contract to take a considerable amount of time to complete,” Cunningham said. “Both language and salary issues must all be addressed, constituting a wide range of topics.”