Rauner’s AFSCME talks break down again
Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration is calling it an impasse. But the state’s largest public employee union says it’s willing to keep negotiating despite disagreeing on a number of issues.
On Friday, talks between the state’s largest public employee union and Rauner’s administration broke down once again.
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents more than 40,000 unionized state employees, said Rauner representatives refused to participate in any further bargaining sessions, claiming that negotiations are at an impasse. The union rejected that claim and said it’s willing to continue to negotiate.
But Lance Trover, Rauner’s spokesman, later released a statement saying the union has rejected all of Rauner’s core proposals and insisted that they would never agree to those proposals. Trover said negotiators asked AFSCME if they believed they were at an impasse. He said the union rejected that claim and also rejected the offer for additional negotiation sessions next week.
“After a year of no meaningful progress, we must now evaluate the benefit of future sessions given AFSCME’s intransigence,” Trover said in a statement. “In light of their answers today, we will now decide if the previouslyagreed dispute resolution process should be considered.”
In a statement, AFSCME Executive Director Roberta Lynch said the union is prepared to continue negotiating and will take legal action if the administration refuses to negotiate.
“It is a violation of state labor law for a party to declare impasse where none exists,” she said in a statement.
“We are shocked that the Rauner Administration would walk away and refuse to continue negotiations. The Governor’s rash action invites confrontation and chaos — it is not the path to a fair agreement. The people of Illinois deserve leadership that is focused on working together and getting things done, not someone who demands his own way or nothing at all. With no state budget to fund the public services that Illinois residents rely on and no union contract for the men and women who provide those services, the last thing the people of Illinois need is another manufactured crisis from a governor unwilling to do the hard work of compromise,” Lynch said.