With a strike looming, state workers should know they have another option: becoming fair share payers. Fair share employees receive all the benefits guaranteed in a union-negotiated contract, but the union cannot punish them for working during a strike.
After months of obstructing progress on a contract for state workers, members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees have voted to authorize a strike – a walkout on state taxpayers – should leadership issue the call.
The state’s largest government-worker union just voted to authorize a strike for state workers. The union perpetuates a myth that Gov. Bruce Rauner is waging war on the middle class – all while ignoring that his contract offer to state workers includes benefits unavailable to most Illinoisans working in the private sector.
AFSCME members have spent the last few weeks voting on whether to authorize what could be the first-ever state worker strike in Illinois history. Even if members vote to authorize a strike, it doesn’t mean a strike is imminent – nor does it mean that the majority of state workers want to strike.
The average Illinois AFSCME worker receives over $100,000 a year in total compensation. But that isn’t enough for AFSCME leadership – it is demanding even more. And its demands should offend Illinois taxpayers footing the bill.
Despite the fact that the average AFSCME worker makes over $100,000 a year in total compensation, the union has made health care, salary and benefit demands that are out of line with what Illinois taxpayers can afford and would aggravate the state’s financial crisis.
The union representing state workers is currently holding a strike authorization vote. Understanding whom AFSCME represents better equips taxpayers in evaluating AFSCME’s demands and whether a strike is reasonable.
Illinois’ declining union membership is but one more reminder that the state’s anti-jobs business environment hurts the broad population of job-seekers, whether they are union or non-union.
Super Sunday sees 239 corrections officers – or 19 percent of the staff assigned to work that day – call in sick despite pleas to officers ahead of time from the Cook County Sheriff’s office.
Missouri has become the 28th state to enact Right to Work, causing Illinois’ regional competitiveness to decline further.
The union representing state workers is threatening to strike – demanding extravagant pay and benefits and refusing 40-hour work weeks before overtime kicks in. Illinoisans should be outraged.
Illinois law provides state workers a right to strike – but only if a strike is legal. State workers represented by AFSCME can go on strike only if the union and the state are at impasse in contract negotiations – and AFSCME claims they are not.
As an AFSCME strike looms on the horizon, many are questioning how a strike would affect state workers and Illinois residents. While a potential strike should have minimal impact on residents, AFSCME members have much more to lose.
The union representing Illinois state workers scheduled a strike authorization vote for sometime between Jan. 30 and Feb. 19 – and it could be the first AFSCME strike in state history.