The Eastern chapter of the University Professionals of Illinois voted in favor of a revised four-year contract for its members Friday.

Out of 447 votes (66 percent of UPI members), 426 voted in favor of the contract and 21 voted against it.

“I think there was wide support, and that’s what I was expecting,” said UPI President Charles Delman. “I’m very pleased, of course.”

The official voting numbers were tallied at about 2 p.m. Friday.

Contract language is still being debated, but Bob Wayland, director of the Office of Labor Relations, expects the language to be settled sometime this week.

“It’s almost completed,” Wayland said.

He said the contract negotiations, which began in August, took longer than average labor agreements.

“It was long, but it covers many more people, it’s a much more complex agreement than some of the others,” he said.

The UPI contract is more complex than other labor agreements because of issues like processes for promotions and evaluations.

“I’m very appreciative of all the work that everyone has put into it,” Wayland said of both the UPI and administrative negotiating team. “I’m very relieved, and I’m very pleased that everyone seems to be pretty happy with it now.”

Now that negotiations are concluding, Delman is looking forward to having time to focus on other issues for UPI.

“There were a lot of things that we have wanted to do and have initiated but had to put on hold during this contract process,” Delman said. “It’s good to have the contract done so we can move onto other things that are very important to us.”

The contract includes across-the-board increases of 3.25 percent the first year, 3 percent the second and third years and 3.5 percent the fourth year.

The contract also provides market equity of 2.5 percent the first year. A portion of the 2.5 percent will be ATB, and a portion will be departmental. The second and third years provide 1.15 percent ATB market equity.

The contract also includes additional money for promotions and merit increases.

The total estimated cost to Eastern is $2.6 million the first year, $2.2 million the second year, $2.3 million the third year and $2.2 million the fourth year.