Bargaining Committee Takes It to the Governor

From the outset, the Union has made clear to Management that this round of negotiations is tainted by the Quinn Administration s failure to honor the existing AFSCME contract by withholding negotiated pay raises.

On February 2, the AFSCME Bargaining Committee took that message directly to Governor Quinn. When negotiations wrapped up on Thursday afternoon, the entire Bargaining Committee, some 240 strong, headed over to the State Capitol with a giant 6 X 3 ft. Collection Notice to deliver to the Governor's Office. With the Capitol Police barring the door to the Office, the Bargaining Committee with signs raised and whistles blaring pressed in behind Council 31 Executive Director Henry Bayer as he demanded that a representative of the Governor come out to receive and respond to the Collection Notice. But apparently fearful of its own employees, the Quinn Administration was in hiding and refused to show their faces.

Fortunately, however, the news media was out in force and heard our message loud and clear. You can view the extensive media coverage of the event by going to www.afscme31.org. The text of the Collection Notice—signed by all of the Bargaining Committee members read:

This is an attempt to collect a debt. On behalf of 30,000 Illinois state employees who care for the most vulnerable, keep prisons safe and much more, we are seeking to uphold and enforce our legally binding collective bargaining agreement with the State of Illinois and you, Gov. Quinn. You say you "believe in the right of working people to organize" and that unions exist to "make sure people get a decent wage." Yet you have failed to comply with our union contract and the law with respect to the pay schedule of the men and women who do the real work of state government. Instead you have chosen to provoke a costly court battle. Please immediately remit the amount you owe in full.

Hypocrisy Doesn’t Become You, Governor

Last week we saw Republicans in our neighboring state of Indiana strike a disastrous blow against working men and women with the enactment of a Right-to-Work-for Less bill that will greatly weaken the ability of unions to represent their members both in the private and public sectors. Governor Quinn was quick to criticize Indiana Republicans for their actions and he was right to do so. But what Quinn failed to note is that Democrats in that state fought a long and fierce battle trying to defeat this anti-union legislation and protect collective bargaining rights. At the same time, Governor Quinn, Illinois' leading Democrat, is seeking to undermine fundamental principles of collective bargaining by refusing to honor the contracts he negotiated with AFSCME and other unions representing state employees and withholding scheduled pay increases from union members. While the General Assembly contributed to the state s dire fiscal crisis by failing to appropriate sufficient funding for state operations, the blame for trampling on union contracts must lie with Governor Quinn, who alone made the decision to withhold the negotiated raises. The governor could have decided to stand up for what s right. Instead,he has chosen to break his promises and to launch an assault on state employees

Management Wants to Turn Back the Clock

Negotiations continue to focus on issues considered non-economic, i.e. those not deemed to have a direct economic cost for the State or for employees. It s important to remember that many of the most vital gains we’ve made over the years such as promotion standards, layoff protections, restrictions on management s control and authority, fairer hours and scheduling, workplace safety measures, binding arbitration of grievances and much more have all been achieved in this non-economic phase of negotiations. Management is using the State s economic crisis as an excuse to put forward a package of draconian proposals that drastically weaken even obliterate fundamental workplace rights that have been achieved for union members over the years. While Management did back off of a few of those proposals in the most recent round of negotiations, they continue to push for sweeping changes to contract language that would erase many of the gains we’ve made over the past three decades, making it very clear that it s going to take a real battle to protect the contractual rights that are so essential to fairness and dignity on the job.

Unity in Action

Your AFSCME Bargaining Committee is made up of elected representatives from every state local union. All Committee members have pledged to promote unity within the bargaining team in order to secure the best possible contract for AFSCME members. But even the strongest Committee, led by some of the most skilled negotiators in the state, cannot gain a good contract all on its own. Making the kind of progress we’ve achieved over the years has always required the active involvement of AFSCME members at the grassroots level. We’ve had green days, sticker days, solidarity days and just plain in-your-face days. We’ve had pickets, marches and rallies from our local worksites all the way to the State Capitol. It s early in the negotiating process, but from what we’ve seen across the table so far, there’s one thing we can say for sure: As hard as we’ve had to fight before, we re going to have to fight even harder this time. Now is the time for you to make the same commitment to secure a first-class contract that your elected representatives on the Bargaining Committee have already made.