Category: State Employees

AFSCME members in state government are gearing up for contract negotiations for a new state of Illinois master contract, which covers some 35,000 state employees.

With no clear signs that the Management Bargaining Committee recognizes the importance of the work that state employees do, union members are beginning to take more forceful actions to secure a fair contract.

The Pritzker Administration announced steps to speed up and expand hiring in state government. Council 31 Executive Director Roberta Lynch says our union will do all we can to advance that effort.

Veronica Lea has been a direct support professional (DSP) for 30 years. She works at Trinity Services, Inc., helping senior women with intellectual and developmental disabilities. She is the 2022 Illinois DSP of the Year.

Primary Election Day was June 28 in Illinois. We voted together to elect pro-worker candidates. And Winnebago County decisively voted YES to save River Bluff Nursing Home.

Some Illinois AFSCME members have received communications from the so-called “Freedom Foundation,” or “Opt Out Today," a group that seeks to stop workers from collectively fighting to protect pensions, raise wages, or improve protections and benefits.

More than 300 building, grounds and dining services employees of Illinois State University—members of AFSCME local 1110—overwhelmingly voted to approve the terms of an agreement reached last week on the brink of a campus-wide strike.

The AFSCME Local 1110 bargaining committee announced on April 14 that it has reached a tentative agreement with Illinois State University that advances the goals the union has been trying so hard to achieve at the bargaining table.

In February we celebrate Black History Month, and AFSCME’s long legacy of standing up for racial justice—from the strike of Memphis sanitation workers 56 years ago this month, to affirming that Black Lives Matter today.

In Illinois, state workers have a strong union voice and robust collective bargaining rights. In Missouri, their bargaining rights are restricted and unions weakened. There's a stark union difference between the two sides of the Mississippi River.