After three years of hard work and intense negotiations, the interpreters in the criminal court system of Cook County signed their first contract with the Chicago Newspaper Guild on Jan. 20.

The interpreters of the Cook County Criminal Courts system provide interpretive services for persons appearing before the court in over eighty different languages. Guild members have seen interpreters Kathleen Orozco and Jorge Carbajosa in action at Guild sector conferences where they interpret mostly for the Puerto Rican delegation.

Under the terms of the three-year contract between the Chicago Newspaper Guild and the chief judge of the Cook County Circuit Court, full-timers will receive a 13 percent increase in the first year of the contract and part-time session employees, formerly independent contractors, receive an 8.3 percent increase in the first year of the agreement.

In addition the session employees will have exclusive rights to at least eight full-time positions to be created under the terms of the agreement.

Ninety employees will be covered by the contract, with eventually 34 full-timers.

About 60 percent of the new Newspaper Guild unit voted to ratify their first contract at a meeting held Jan. 20 in the cafeteria of the criminal courts building at 26th Street and California Avenue, located next door to Cook County Jail.

Bargaining began in the winter of 2002.

“It was a long slow process and a very careful process especially with the county because they had no previous experience with the Guild,” said Jerry Minkkinen, executive director of the Chicago Newspaper Guild.

“Eventually we started making progress and reaching agreements on the structural parts of the contract and didn't start discussing the economic parts of the contract until very late in the process last year.”

Alex Gaitan, the unit's lead negotiator, said “It was a long road. They were very difficult negotiations, and at times we wondered if anything would happen. We are very happy with the outcome and we're grateful to everyone who worked so hard on both sides. This was the first contract we put together. We like being members of a union and we like being organized, and we hop this is a first step for the interpreters as a recognized profession.”

Before bargaining could even begin, the Guild had to withstand several court challenges after the county appealed a decision made by a judge of the Illinois Labor Relations Board that the per diem employees were in fact county employees and not independent contractors.

Minkkinen said the county challenged the decision before the full Labor Relations Board before the Chicago Federation of Labor arranged a meeting with the chief judge where he agreed to delay the final hearing on the county's challenge and bargain instead.

As a result of the settlement, the county's court challenges will be withdrawn.

“It's just great to have all these new members,” said Guild attorney Craig Rosenbaum. “It's a thrill. Everybody worked so hard.

This campaign started in 1999 with Jerry and (former Guild attorney) Ken Edwards before I came here . To keep everyone together for five years is just a great accomplishment.”

Under the new contract per diem employees will receive an increase to $130 per day and a wage reopener in 2005 and 2006.

The new contract includes union recognition, and union rights, , a vacation schedule, benefits including health and life insurance and personal days, seniority lists, and a grievance procedure.

Minkkinen said the experience of negotiating with the political public sector wasn't the same as bargaining with a private firm with a profit motive. “It was a different experience in that we had to deal with political pressures rather than profit motives,” he said. "We just had to work through it and create whatever pressure we could both through the labor movement and through the willingness of the employees to take on the employer.”

The interpreters did take a strike vote in the summer of 2004. That vote led to the intervention of a federal mediator and Minkkinen said it wasn't until the federal mediator came into the picture that the negotiations established new positions which were critical to the session employees as well as job upgrade full-time employees.

“Once those pieces were in place it was settled very quickly,”

Minkkinen said " But it took an awfully long process. There were times you thought it was never going to end. There were many frustrating moments along the way. I really have to give credit to the guts and perseverance of the interpreters because they just slogged through it”

Minkkinen said the new unit of some 90 full-and-part-timers will be a welcome addition to the Chicago Newspaper Guild.