Illinois’ largest public employee union has reached a tentative agreement with the state on a new contract, the union said.
The two sides came to agreement in the hours after the union’s previous contract expired at the end of June.
Representatives of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31, which represents thousands of state workers ranging from corrections officers to public health employees, declined to provide details on the tentative pact, which has to go before membership for a vote.
“We will share details once members have had a chance to review terms and vote on the tentative agreement,” AFSCME Council 31 spokesman Anders Lindall said in an email Wednesday morning. “Those meetings are likely to start next week and take a week or two to complete.”
In Illinois, the union represents more than 90,000 active and retired employees of state, county and city governments, as well as state universities, local school districts and nonprofits.
The tentative agreement reached Saturday coincided with the start of the state’s 2024 fiscal year and a $50.4 billion budget passed by the Democratic-controlled state legislature and signed by Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
Pritzker’s administration has not said how much money the budget included to accommodate a new collective bargaining agreement with AFSCME, but noted its previous contract with the union cost more than $400 million over four years.
At an unrelated news conference Wednesday, Pritzker described contract negotiations as “friendly” in the sense that “we knew on both sides that we needed to reach an agreement and it was reached roughly on time by the end of the fiscal year.”
“This negotiation looked very much like the negotiation four years ago that we had,” Pritzker said. “When you come to the table with goodwill in your heart to try to reach agreement, and I think both sides did that, even when sometimes you have small disagreements in the process, the end result will be one that we can all be proud of and here we reached one that I think everybody is proud of.”
Legislative Republicans had questioned whether the Democrats’ spending plan had taken into account the costs of a new AFSCME contract, though Pritzker last month brushed off those concerns.
The tentative labor agreement comes as Pritzker is dealing with fallout from another budgetary issue, spending on a health care program for immigrants in the country without legal permission.
Pritzker’s February budget proposal included $220 million for the program, but by early May projections had swelled to $1.1 billion as enrollment continued to outstrip expectations. In late May, Pritzker struck a deal with the legislature that allocated $550 million for the program and gave his administration “tools” to control its cost.
Pritzker has taken heat from immigrant groups and other advocates for deciding to close enrollment for immigrants under 65 and cap enrollment for those 65 and older.
jgorner@chicagotribune.com
