The State of Illinois and its largest employee Union have reached tentative agreement on a new contract.
Both Gov. Pat Quinn's office and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, commonly known as AFSCME, put out statements today announcing the deal for a new, three-year pact covering roughly 35,000 state workers.
Details were not immediately available, though the union is believed to have won a pay hike of some size, despite the state's rocky financial condition.
"AFSCME is very pleased that we were able to reach an agreement that protects our members' standard of living, and is fair to them and all Illinois citizens, even in these very challenging economic times," Henry Bayer, president of AFSCME's Illinois Council, said in a statement.
"This agreement is fair to both hardworking state employees and all taxpayers of Illinois," Mr. Quinn said, also in a statement.
The sides have been engaged in often very contentious talks for well over a year. Among issues that have been on the table are the closure of facilities the state says are not needed, pay, health care benefits and pensions.
I'll give you more details if and when I get them.
11:15 a.m. update — I now have some details, from sources familiar with the negotiations.
Agreement was reached at 1 a.m. this morning after what I'm told was the longest negotiation process in state history.
Workers will get a pay raises — assuming they ratify the pact. I'm told they're around the current inflation rate, which would be about 1.5 percent a year or a tad lower. In exchange, retirees would begin paying toward their state-provided health care, something that recently was mandated by lawmakers but has not been implemented. That's said to be worth some hundreds of millions of dollars, but I'd like to read the fine print.
There are no new limits on management's (Mr. Quinn's) power to close what he views as unneeded facilities and programs and force layoffs. But neither is there any agreement on pension reform, which is being left to the General Assembly to resolve.
Follow Greg on Twitter at @GregHinz.
- See more at: http://www.chicagobusiness.
February 28, 2013
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