Unionized workers at the Sangamon County Department of Public Health have planned an informational picket before Tuesday’s County Board meeting after voting a week ago to authorize a potential strike in a contract dispute centering on privacy protections, pay and paid sick time.

The approximately 30 health department workers, who provide health care, clerical and custodial services as well as restaurant inspections, want county board members to stop “dragging their feet and settle a fair contract now,” according to a news release from Council 31 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

The informational picketing will begin at 6 p.m. Tuesday outside the Sangamon County complex at 200 N. Ninth St. before the 7 p.m. County Board meeting, AFSCME staff representative Gene Mitchell said.

Union leaders don’t plan to speak during the board meeting, but it’s unknown whether union members will attend the meeting, he said.

County administrator Brian McFadden wouldn’t comment on the issues that have held up bargaining with the union.

McFadden said a strike-authorization vote “is part of their strategy. It doesn’t intimidate the county. It doesn’t motivate the county. It doesn’t anger us.”

He said the county has a “contingency plan” that would ensure health care services, inspections and other services provided by the union members would continue if a strike took place.

McFadden said the county has settled contracts with several unions over the past six months, including an AFSCME contract covering highway department workers.

Members of Chapter 4 of AFSCME Local 3738, who are part of the 110-employee health department at 2833 South Grand Ave. E, are working under the terms of a four-year contract that expired Nov. 30, Mitchell said.

The 24 employees present at a June 4 union meeting voted unanimously to reject the county’s latest contract settlement offer, he said. The employees then voted 21-3 to give bargaining committee members the authority to call for a strike, if necessary, he said.

This is the first time the AFSCME chapter has ever taken a vote to authorize a strike, Mitchell said.

The chapter has represented local health department workers for decades, even before the county health department merged with the Springfield Department of Public Health in 2006, he said.

The two sides last met on May 29, accompanied by a federal mediator, and they are scheduled to meet again with the mediator on Friday, Mitchell said.

The workers are seeking protections in their labor contract that would prevent personal information such as home addresses and Social Security numbers from being divulged to people filing Freedom of Information Act requests, Mitchell said.

He said health department workers already have received unwanted mail at their homes from the right-leaning Illinois Policy Institute encouraging them to withdraw from their union and exercise their right to not pay dues to AFSCME in the wake of 2018’s U.S. Supreme Court’s Janus vs. AFSCME case.

The workers, including registered nurses and licensed practical nurses, want more competitive wages to reduce turnover, he said.

They also want improved sick-time language in their contract to make it easier for newer employees to stay home from work rather than spreading disease to patients of the health department, Mitchell said.

Contact Dean Olsen: dean.olsen@sj-r.com, 788-1543, twitter.com/DeanOlsenSJR.