A letter from the City of Rockford shows AFSCME contract talks aren't going well

At Monday night's city council meeting over 100 AFSCME workers rallied to show city leaders their ready for a deal, but in a letter sent to Rockford alderman from the city's legal department shows the talks seem to have come to a grinding halt.

In the letter Rockford legal director Patrick Hayes says, "the union president's level of rhetoric was beyond an acceptable level."  And that the union president "would speak whenever he chose to." 

Because of that, attorney Hayes felt the session would be "unproductive and divisive," which is why he says he declared the meeting over.

At least one Rockford alderman is hoping cooler heads will prevail at their next bargaining session, but AFSCME representatives say in the six months they've been working without a contract they have gotten little respect and progress from the city.

"They know that they're not being respected by the city, these are people that made major sacrifices during the hard times, and they [the city] come back and they're saying well are you guys chumps or what?  That's not the case here.  We're not going to be treated like that," said AFSCME representative Richard Berg.

"Sometimes maybe you need to just back away, maybe go take a 15 minute break or 20 minutes break, get a coke-a-cola, sit down, put your heads together and come back again," said 10^th Ward Alderman Frank Beach.  "Try to stay in that room until you at least have some civil dialogue instead of just cut it off and go away."

AFSCME represents about 300 city workers.  The city declined to comment on the letter or process.  At this point no new bargaining sessions have been set.