SPRINGFIELD - Governor Bruce Rauner announced agreements Wednesday with the Chicago-based Service Employees International Union Local 1 and a number of trade unions. Rauner’s office says the new contracts account for more than 500 people.
Since a number of unions’ contracts expired this summer, the administration has ratified agreements with seventeen of them, representing more than 5,000 employees.
The governor used the announcement to highlight the lack of agreement with the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Local 31. Rauner says AFSCME continues to refuse a pay freeze, raising the overtime trigger from 37.5 to 40 hours and other concessions other unions accepted.
A spokesman for AFSCME said the union is committed to reaching a fair agreement, but the governor’s confrontational tactics make it harder to find common ground.
He said the wage freeze would become a pay cut when coupled with rising healthcare costs paid by members.
He noted about 40,000 union employees have yet to reach a new agreement with the governor.
AFSCME Local 31 is Illinois’ largest public sector union, representing more than 35,000 workers.
Union contracts with the state expired on June 30th, but the two sides have agreed to stay at the bargaining table instead of striking or locking out employees until an impasse is declared.
Via Illinois News Network
