By Illinois News Network
Gov. Bruce Rauner took a big step toward preparing for a labor strike, launching a website seeking potential replacement workers if AFSCME decides to strike.
The site, statejobs.illinois.gov, allows visitors to submit basic personal and contact information and includes a dropdown menu of specific jobs that they might be interested in doing.
“You have reached Working for a Better Illinois,” a message at the top of the website reads. “This website allows citizens of Illinois who are interested in working for the State to provide their contact information, along with the type of work and location where they would like to work. In the event of a labor strike, the State will use this information to match citizens’ interests with the State’s needs.”
AFSCME, the state’s largest public employee union with about 38,000 members, voted last weeks to authorize its leaders to strike if they can’t agree to a new contract with Rauner.
The vote doesn’t guarantee a strike, but it gives union leaders the ability to call one if they see fit. The union’s executive director, Roberta Lynch, has said she is hopeful that the union and Rauner will resume negotiations.
AFSCME has been without a contract since July 2015. In November, an arbitrator awarded Rauner the ability to implement his “last, best, and final offer,” but AFSCME has been challenging that ruling in court.
The union is seeking salary increases and other benefits that would cost Illinois taxpayers more than $3 billion over the life of a new four-year contract. Rauner’s final offer includes a salary freeze for workers, who are the highest paid in the U.S. when adjusted for inflation. He also wants employees to pay more for their health insurance, but give them more options, and work a 40-hour week.
“We genuinely hope AFSCME leadership will choose not to strike against taxpayers and work with us on implementing common-sense proposals like overtime after 40 hours, not 37.5,” Rauner’s General Counsel Dennis Murashko said in a statement released Tuesday morning. “However, we must be prepared to continue government operations and provide services that citizens deserve and expect.”
AFSCME has not responded to the website launch as of last Tuesday morning.
