A representative from the state-worker union called for collective action from governments of prison towns to force Gov. Bruce Rauner’s hand in the budget debate, which could expose thousands of incarcerated Illinoisans to squalid, dangerous conditions.
The governor’s office has asked the Illinois Labor Relations Board to allow the impasse proceedings between the state and AFSCME to go straight to the five-member labor board instead of first waiting for a decision from the administrative law judge.
The Illinois House will attempt a fifth vote on an AFSCME arbitration bill designed to remove Gov. Bruce Rauner from the collective bargaining process.
If AFSCME workers cannot be paid in the absence of a budget appropriation, pressure will be turned up on the governor to agree to the union’s unreasonable demands.
Illinois AFSCME workers enjoy yearly wages of nearly $60,000 when adjusted for cost of living, in addition to Cadillac health care benefits. Most Illinois state workers will also get free health insurance when they retire, and career state retirees receive $1.6 million in pension benefits on average.
Illinois House Democrats failed to muster the 71 votes needed to override Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto of HB 580, which would have allowed government-worker unions to remove the governor from labor contract negotiations and replace him with a panel of unelected arbitrators.
Illinois government-worker unions demand pay that outstrips that of Illinois private-sector workers and propose numerous tax hikes to fund their contract demands.
Chicago’s $1.15 billion projected budget gap is the latest in a decades-long string of structural deficits. Making Chicago’s high taxes worse is not the solution.