Local union, IU officials to discuss bonuses

The Communications Workers of America union will meet with IU officials Friday to discuss $500 bonuses that will be distributed to workers making less than $30,000 a year.

Peter Kaczmarczyk, president of CWA Local 4730, said all the support staff should be given bonuses, not just those making less than $30,000. The union represents support staff from the Bloomington campus and clerical/technical staff from the IU-Northwest Gary campus.

The IU trustees approved the bonus, which will be distributed in December, after IU President Michael McRobbie came up with the idea while working on the budget.
“When he realized he would not be able to give a general salary increase next year, he wanted to find a way to help those on the lower end of the salary,” said IU spokesman Larry MacIntyre.

The bonuses can amount to as much as $500, but eligible employees could receive less than $500 depending on their annual income, MacIntyre said. The bonus should not alter any eligible employees’ annual income to exceed $30,000.

Across all eight IU campuses, about 2,800 workers are slated to receive the bonuses.
However, Kaczmarczyk said that isn’t enough.

“Not giving everyone the bonuses is a slap in the face to long-term employees,” Kaczmarczyk said. “People making $30,000 or more are also having a hard time making ends meet.”

Ideally, the union would like to see all employees receive the bonus and have it distributed as part of employees’ base pay, Kaczmarczyk said. This would mean a slight wage increase.

He said he would like to see this added to base pay because salary determines many things, such as retirement.

Of the employees the union represents, Kaczmarczyk said about fewer than half will be eligible to receive the bonuses.

MacIntyre said the bonuses were created to intentionally alleviate employees at the lower end of the pay scale because McRobbie felt those workers would be most affected by the salary freeze.

“He wanted to find some way to cushion that,” MacIntyre said.

McRobbie first announced the salary freeze in December during a board of trustees meeting. This past month, the IU board of trustees approved the salary freeze, which includes faculty and staff.

The discussion of bonuses between the union and IU officials was originally slated for July 24. However, the meeting was changed to Friday after one of the union’s employees died.

“We are hoping that they will be open to fair and reasonable discussions,” Kaczmarczyk said.