 Also on Wednesday, the governor vetoed Senate Bill 1229, which Democrats say is
aimed at preventing a strike or lockout and continuing state services.
Rauner and GOP legislators, however, say that bill would put one of the state’s
biggest decisions in the hands of an unelected person and could force the state
to accept the union’s terms in whole.
And in a third development Wednesday, the governor’s lead attorney told state
agency directors the governor simply would not lock out state employees.
The new extension or “tolling agreement” between the Rauner administration and
the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Council 31,
among other things, says:
— The state and the union will continue to bargain in good faith and “neither
party will resort to a strike, work stoppage, work slowdown or lockout between
Aug. 31 … and Sept. 30 or until an impasse is reached, whichever comes later.”
— The state and the union continue to disagree on whether the state has an
obligation to continue step pay increases and semi-automatic promotion
increases.
— Unless otherwise spelled out in the agreement, both parties retain their
rights that existed on June 30, the date of the previous contract’s expiration.
This is the second such agreement between the administration and the union. The
first covered the month of July.
The governor’s office released the document without comment.
Anders Lindall, spokesman for AFSCME 31, released a prepared statement, part of
which said the “extension underscores our union’s commitment to reaching a fair
agreement with no disruption to state services, and gives us the ability to keep
working toward an agreement”
“Even so, the parties remain very far apart on many basic issues as a result of
the Rauner administration’s continued extreme demands that would … strip the
rights of public service workers, reduce access to health care and make it
impossible to keep pace with the rising cost of living,” the union said.
In his veto message on Senate Bill 1229, the governor made it clear that he sees
things differently.
The bill, Rauner said, “is … based on a false premise that our administration
has been unreasonable in labor negotiations and wants to lock-out employees or
prompt an employee strike. Nothing could be further from the truth. We have
negotiated in good faith with AFSCME since shortly after I took office.”
The bill would allow either side to declare a bargaining impasse, at which time
an arbitrator would be chosen. Once the arbitration hearing begins, a strike or
lockout would be prohibited.
Rauner argues the process, known as interest arbitration, is misunderstood.
“Presented with the state’s and the unions’ proposals, arbitrators will be
picking winners and losers by accepting either side’s proposal in its entirety,”
the governor wrote in his veto message.
“Because they are unelected and unaccountable, arbitrators can decide to impose
on the state the unions’ proposals without regard to the dire impact those
proposals will have on our fiscal stability.”
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AFSCME 31 Executive Director Roberta Lynch disagreed.
“The bill does no more than offer state workers the option of the
same fair arbitration procedures available for more than 30 years to
police officers, firefighters and prison security employees in
Illinois,” she said in a written statement. “Contrary to the
governor’s claim, it does not mandate arbitration but offers it as a
last recourse.”
State Rep. Mike Smiddy, D-Hillsdale, lead sponsor in the House of SB
1229, said he expects an override effort.
The bill originally passed the House on a vote of 67 to 25 with
three members voting present and 23 representatives not voting. It
passed the Senate on a vote of 38 to 17, with no senators voting
present and four not voting.
Override proponents would need 71 votes in the House and 36 Senate.
The Senate has as many as 15 days for an override effort. Should a
vote succeed there, the bill would be sent to the House, where
representatives would again have as many 15 days to act.
Smiddy said he’s fairly confident he can reach 71 votes in the House
if Democrats are all present, and he believes the Senate will
override with ease.
“I absolutely plan on asking for an override vote the moment it
comes out of the Senate,” he said Wednesday.
“I look at his bill not as helping the union, not as helping as the
administration, but … as helping the individuals who rely on these
(state) services on a daily basis,” he said.
Also Wednesday, the governor’s general counsel, Jason Barclay, sent
an update on labor negotiations to state agency directors.
That document, a copy of which was obtained by the Illinois News
Network, is somewhat akin to a government version of the bargaining
update memos that AFSCME occasionally releases to its members.
And, like the AFSCME updates, it caused a stir.
For instance, Barclay wrote: “Contrary to incendiary comments in
AFSCME’s newsletter that have been reported publicly, with or
without a tolling agreement the governor will not lock out state
employees.”
Barclay’s bolded and underlined the part reading “the governor will
not lock out state employees.”
In a note to the Springfield political blog Capitol Fax, Lindall
said the administration never made such a commitment and “to the
contrary, has actively recruited retired state employees as strike
breakers and failed to deny considering the mobilization of the
National Guard to break a strike.”
Lindall added state employees don’t want to strike and “have never
been forced to strike in more than 40 years of collective
bargaining.”
Barclay also cited several examples of union proposals he said the
state could not afford, including a call for an “11.5 percent pay
increase of over $1.25 billion over four years.”
While he did not address that specific item, Lindall said Barclay’s
examples included information “misleadingly presented.”
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