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AFSCME got a big win in court this week

as they were granted a temporary restraining order

that would prevent Governor Rauner from imposing his final demands

on the union and we're gonna see

where things go from here.

Joining us now is Anders Lindall Communications Director with AFSCME Council 31,

Anders thank you for being here I'm glad to join ya.

The state labor board finalized its ruling this week

that the two sides are at an impasse

but AFSCME is fighting that really tell us why.

So the labor board actually threw out the recommendations

of the administrative law judge who spent two months

looking at the facts in this case

that judge said that there was no impasse

on big issues like healthcare and wages

that judge said that the Rauner administration

had broken the law by failing to bargain

in good faith and to give us information

we needed to develop our own proposals

and that judge recommended that the Rauner administration

be ordered back to the table

we're the ones who want to negotiate

its Governor Rauner who walked away back in January

and has refused to even meet with our bargaining committee

of rank and file state employees for nearly a year

the labor board which is appointed by the governor

threw out those recommendations

and said no the governor should get the unilateral

power just to impose his demands

like 4 years with no pay increase.

Like a 100 percent hike in what employees

have to pay just to keep their health care.

The net effect of those two together,

a pay freeze and doubling health costs

that's a $10,000 pay cut out of the pockets of the average state worker.

The governor has gone ahead to try to

impose those changes before he could legally do so.

So we went to the circuit court

and said look this is a violation of the law

and the judge agreed and granted a temporary

restraining order it's a temporary victory

that keeps the status quo in place

and really the way to resolve this litigation

the way to resolve the threat of a disruptive strike

in which nobody wins is for the governor to come back to negotiate.

If there's truly been negotiating for almost a year now

it sounds like the two sides are are nowhere

close to an agreement right now

why aren't the two sides at an impasse

why wouldn't you called an impasse.

So one party can't try to force an impasse

by just refusing to be at the table now

unfortunately it's a tactic that's all too familiar

I think to observers of the state budget impasse.

If Governor Rauner who's demanded

some very extreme changes that are unrelated

to the budget that would hurt working people

like making it harder for folks that are

injured on the job to get medical care

like making it harder for folks to negotiate together

in the workplace and have a voice

and he won't develop a budget to fund higher education,

to fund Human Services to fund local governments

unless he gets these other things it's his way or no way.

It's been the same thing on the state contract now

we have negotiated contracts with governors

Republicans and Democrats for more than 40 years

we've never been forced to strike

we've always been able to find an agreement

that's fair to all and that's what we want to do here too

but that requires both sides at the bargaining table.

We're gonna put a graphic up here of what both sides

say the the demands are right now AFSCME says

that the governor would double the cost of health

insurance for employees of when a 4 year pay

freeze as you mentioned in a blank check out source

public services for private profit. Rauner's office

said his final offer includes $1,000 merit pay for employees

overtime after 40 hours bereavement leave and

actual drug and alcohol testing of those reasonably suspected

of use of on the job. Rauner's camp says this is going

to save the state a lot of money, he says that this

mirrors contracts they've negotiated with other

unions throughout the state so why won't this work.

Well so let's just pause for a little fact check here some

unions have reached an agreement there are

more than half a dozen unions that have

not including all of the largest unions state

government that don't have an agreement

but none of those who have settled,

had settled on the same terms as what

they're trying to force on AFSCME.

Other unions have taken a pay freeze

or higher health costs they're trying to

force AFSCME represented employees

to take both the pay freeze and the

higher health costs so that's very important

but you know really let's just put this in perspective

you have a person Bruce Rauner,

who last year took home $188 million.

$188 million as an hourly rate

that's $90,000 an hour that's

more than most state workers make

that's more than most Illinoisans make.

$90,000 an hour for Bruce Rauner another

hand saying that the child protection worker

that goes into a broken home to rescue a

kid from child abuse. Or the caregiver for

an aged or disabled veteran or a person with

mental illness or developmental disabilities.

That those folks having affordable healthcare

and decent pay are the problem out that

just doesn't compute for me and I think for

you know most reasonable people understand

that the governor's being unreasonable

he really needs to come back to the table

and negotiate. If he comes back to the

table let's ask me willing to compromise

a willing to meet in the middle on some

of his demands. Oh absolutely look

we've said that we are willing to modify

every proposal that we have put on

the table we were not at our final

offer back in January when he walked

away in fact on that very last day of negotiations

will we didn't know would be the last day

they blindsided us by walking away.

We had just made new compromise proposals

that they've never even responded to and

we're prepared to go further to try to meet

in the middle but that requires choosing

compromise not confrontation. That is the

choice that the governor faces if there is

continued litigation if there's a continuing

threat of a strike one person bears that

responsibility and it's Bruce Rauner.

I believe AFSCME's contract ran out about

a year and a half ago. You guys have been

negotiating in good faith willing to keep

going back to the bargaining table but

how long can you do this before we see a

work stoppage, how close are we to that to

that happening that in game. We are a

grassroots and a democratic organization.

Small D. Our members run the union they

are the union and they make the decisions

for what impacts their working lives and

that's as it should be. So they delegate a

bargaining committee of their co-workers

state employees on the front lines from all

over Illinois who develop proposals who

respond to the administration's proposals

if we can get back to the bargaining table

that's who will be there in the absence

of that if the governor continues to

go forward to try to impose his terms

to force workers to accept those

terms then that is a decision that

the membership was gonna make

by democratic vote either to live

under those terms or to authorize a

strike that wouldn't mean that there

would have to be a strike but they

could give their committee the power

to authorize a strike and I think that

you know that is something that in

the coming weeks that the committee

and the membership will have to consider

if the governor does not change and

pull us back from the brink of confrontation

that he's been driving to you know now

by refusing for a year to even sit down and talk.

Alright we'll leave that right here and

we'll see how that goes in the next few

weeks and see what happens,

Anders you so much for being here.