Illinois AFSCME sets strike authorization vote
By
George Gallanis
21 January 2017
Last week, the Illinois American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 31, representing 38,000 state employees, scheduled a strike authorization vote to begin on January 30 and end mid-February. The strike authorization vote is in response to Republican Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner refusing AFSCME’s latest contract proposal.
The current labor contract expired on June 30, 2015, with Rauner refusing to negotiate with AFSCME since January 2016. Last November, the governor began unilaterally implementing his draconian contract, which included a four-year wage freeze and a doubling of health insurance premiums, after the Illinois Labor Relations Board (ILRB) declared negotiations between the state and the union had reached an impasse.
However, last December, an Illinois circuit court judge agreed to a request by AFSCME to place a temporary restraining order on the implementation of Rauner’s new contract agreement, temporarily halting it. AFSCME cited a legal loophole that declared the contract to be invalid because Rauner implemented it without the ILRB formally publishing their conclusion in written form.
AFSCME is using the temporary ruling to buy time in order to bring Rauner back to the negotiation table. The union’s bureaucratic leaders are desperate to convince Rauner they are willing to do his dirty work. AFSCME’s latest contract proposal aimed to do just that.
Prostrating themselves before Rauner, AFSCME offered to accept a four-year wage freeze, as demanded by him, and increase the out-of-pocket costs for health insurance.
Making sure Rauner got the picture, AFSCME declared the following: “Making clear that this framework did not represent…