For Dawn Williams, a laundry aide at the DeKalb County Rehab and Nursing Center, making ends meet is a constant challenge.

In addition to her full-time job at the nursing center, 2600 N. Annie Glidden Road, WIlliams, 27, works as a waitress on the weekends. Still, she said she cannot afford to move herself and her two children into their own apartment and must live with her parents.

Williams and other workers in laundry, housekeeping and dietary services are part of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, who have been working under an expired contract since Dec. 1, 2004.

The union’s members, upset the county asked them to pay for rising health insurance costs, picketed before a March 16 county board meeting.

The union members’ insurance premium has been increased 25 percent with no definite wage increase proposal on the table, said Peg Karmeen, staff representative with AFSCME Council 31.

“We have many people that are making very little money, $7 to $8 an hour, after many years of working there,” Karmeen said. “No one at the nursing home is wealthy enough to absorb a net loss of pay.”

Williams, who is also going to school part time at Waubonsee Community College in Aurora, said she cannot absorb this proposed loss.

“With the wages I make, that would take half my paycheck for family insurance and the other half would go to day care [for my two children],” she said. “I would have nothing left.”

The county’s employees collectively spent more than $3 million in health insurance last year, which resulted in an increased insurance premium, DeKalb County Administrator Ray Bockman said.

The county currently pays 75 percent of the union members’ insurance, he said.

The union asked the county to pick up 10 of the 25 percent insurance increase, said Marla Cradduck, president of AFSCME Local 3537 and rehabilitation aid at DeKalb County Rehab and Nursing Center.

Bockman refused to comment on any of the ongoing negotiations with the AFSCME.

The union will try their best to avoid a strike because they want to continue to serve the residents of the county nursing home, Karmeen said.

Union members like Williams, however, may be left with no choice but to quit their jobs if an agreement is not made soon.

“They’re going to be pushing people out [of] the door,” Williams said. “They’re going to be complaining there’s too many people on public aid, because everyone’s going to be on public aid.”