The end of June marks both the last day of Fiscal Year 2023 and the state’s four-year contract with Council 31 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union, the state’s largest union for public service workers. Republicans in Springfield, however, have asserted the newly passed $50.4 state budget does not account for those expenses.

Members of the super-minority party claimed in the lead-up to last month’s budget vote that approximately $300 million was a potential cost for the state in the negotiations, thus opening the door for a potential tax increase. That assertion has been denied by Gov. JB Pritzker, whose office has been in negotiations since January.

“We built in what we thought might be the appropriate amount of money for what we expect from that AFSCME negotiation. So that’s in the budget already,” he said during the budget signing ceremony earlier this month. “That’s a you know, once again, one of those false things that Republicans like to say about the budget, but it is in the budget.”

How much the contract will actually cost will be revealed once an agreement has been reached, where both the governor and AFSMCE hopes is finalized before July 1. Pritzker spokesperson Alex Gough clarified costs would be spread over the course of the contract.

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In addition to more mundane items such as uniforms and equipment, the priorities in this contract, AFSCME Council 31 spokesperson Anders Lindall told The State Journal-Register last week, include addressing the growing labor shortage of state workers and ensuring access to affordable health care for employees and their dependents.

“We know that they have been maintaining those services despite not only the challenges of the pandemic, but in the face of a severe staff shortage that has forced those employees who remain to work excessive overtime, just to keep the government running,” Lindall said in a phone interview.

Filling vacancies

Currently, the union represents 35,000 state workers ranging from departments such as the Department of Children and Family Services and Department of Human Services. Yet, when accounting for open positions, that number would grow to 43,000.

A large reason for the high number of vacancies is due to a “very arcane” hiring process, Lindall said, one that can take months to fill a position.

“If you are a person who is looking for a job and there’s a position available with state government, but you don’t hear back for six or nine months, you have probably found something else,” he said.

Making that process more efficient is only one of the problems when it comes to attracting workers to state jobs. Growth in pay has been outpaced by inflation – at a rate of more than 30% since 2015 according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics – effectively meaning state workers’ salaries don’t go as far as they used to.

Perhaps alleviating some of the state’s hiring struggles, this year’s budget includes a $750 million increase for DCFS going towards the hire of 192 new workers and expanded training programs. The department has also hosted several on-the-spot hiring events throughout the state, which Lindall supports.

Rauner-less negotiations

Former Gov. Bruce Rauner had his official gubernatorial portrait unveiled at the Illinois State Capitol last week, seen dawning an Illinois-shaped lapel pin now hanging in the “Hall of Governors.” The depiction AFSCME has for the one-term Republican is less than flattering.

No agreement was reached during the prior governor’s term in a feud between Rauner and AFSCME that lasted for his entire term in office. The U.S. Supreme Court even became involved in the tiff with its Janus decision, permitting public employees who don’t want to join workplace unions from paying any fees to the union – a victory for Rauner.

No contract meant the standards of what was the 2011-2015 AFSCME contract were still in-place between 2015 and 2019. Lindall said this essentially created a pay freeze for state workers.

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“(H)e refused, in essence, to bargain in good faith,” Lindall said of Rauner.

Pritzker, alternatively, was hailed by unions during the lead-up to the 2018 election where he won comfortably over the GOP incumbent. Negotiations began soon following his inauguration in 2019 and resulted in the ratification of a four-year, $400 million contract that June.

To make up for those pay freezes, state workers first received a stipend of $625 for each of the four years they worked in addition to annual pay increases in the current deal. Other enhanced benefits included maternity and paternity leave.

During the current contract, unions have enjoyed several victories including last November’s passage of the Workers’ Rights Amendment which codified laborers’ ability to organize and collectively bargain in the state constitution.

The state is also approaching two years since the passage of Senate Bill 525, a bill granting a pathway for hundreds state workers to restore their union representation lost during the Rauner administration.

Contact Patrick Keck: 312-549-9340, pkeck@gannett.com, twitter.com/@pkeckreporter.