Statehouse Insider: AFSCME contract suit may not be heard until next year

It’s been so long now that some of you may have forgotten that the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees still doesn’t have a new contract with the state to replace the one that expired in June 2015.

The dispute was expected to have an appellate court hearing by now. It hasn’t, and it won’t for a while yet.

If you remember way back to spring, the courts blocked the administration from imposing its contract terms on AFSCME until there was a decision on whether an impasse did indeed exist between the union and the state on a new contract. The state says there is an impasse, which would mean it can impose its contract terms. AFSCME says there isn’t one.

The state wanted the Illinois Supreme Court to immediately take up the case last spring, but it refused. The high court said it had to go to the appeals court first.

Read more: http://www.pjstar.com/news/20170916/statehouse-insider-afscme-contract-suit-may-not-be-heard-until-next-year