The Board of Trustees approved two union contracts at Friday’s meeting, and hopes to approve a third at a special meeting Wednesday.

Contracts were approved for the Carpenters Local 347 and the Illinois Fraternal Order of Police Labor Council with little discussion by the board.

A third contract for the Eastern chapter of the University Professionals of Illinois could not be acted on because it has not yet been ratified by the membership.

In hopes of applying the salary changes for UPI members in November paychecks, both the administration and UPI are making special accommodations to finalize the contract this week.

The board of trustees will hold a special meeting Wednesday at 8:15 a.m. following a meeting for the Presidential Search Advisory Committee.

“The board agreed to call a special meeting at 8:15 a.m. for purposes of ratifying the UPI contract,” said Board Vice Chairperson Robert Webb.

UPI now must try and ratify the tentative agreement by the membership before the meeting Wednesday.

“The hope is that if the board ratifies the ballot on Wednesday, that the payroll office will immediately begin entering the data and that faculty members and Academic Support Professionals can expect increases in their paychecks in the November paychecks,” said UPI president Charles Delman.

UPI will hold a ratification meeting at 4 p.m. today in Lumpkin Auditorium to review details and answer questions for the members. Voting ballots will be delivered to UPI members today through university mail as well. Contract information will be posted on the chapter’s Web site at www.eiu.edu/%7EEiuUpi/.

There will be a special pickup of ballots at 4 p.m. Tuesday to determine if the contract has been ratified by the membership. Members are not required to turn in their ballots until noon Friday for a final count, but are encouraged to turn them in by 4 p.m. Tuesday.

“We will report the results of that initial count to the board of trustees,” Wednesday morning, Delman said. “It’s the board’s decision to ratify the contract on whatever basis we give them based on that count.”

The approval of the contract won’t be official until a final ballot count is completed Friday.

“I am happy and relieved that we seem to be coming to the conclusion of this process,” Delman said.