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  • Doesn't Illinois have to live by its word?
    Posted On: Mar 30, 2016

    If there is an on-the-job dispute, a good union member  reaches first for the contract.   

    “What does the contract say?” quickly decides what happens when labor and management disagree.

    But what if the court says you don’t have to live by the contract?

    On March 24, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled on two labor questions.  One upheld workers’ rights, but the second over-ruled a negotiated contract.

    In this first, case, Mary J. Jones v. Municipal Employees’ Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago, the Court upheld the Illinois Pension Code.  Government can’t just quit or cut workers’ pensions.

    However, in the second case, State of Illinois v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the court over-ruled the signed union contract.

    In 2008, AFSCME, which represents over 40,000 state workers, negotiated a contract.  This included raises over the contract’s years.

    Illinois did not pay those raises, saying it could not afford them.

    The court majority ruled, in an opinion authored by Justice Mary Jane Theis, that Illinois was not obligated to pay because the General Assembly did not appropriate enough funds to cover the costs.

    Chief Justice Rita Garman, and Justices Charles Freeman, Robert Thomas, Lloyd Karmeier and Anne Burke agreed.

    One justice, Thomas Kilbride of Rock Island, dissented.

    In his dissent, Kilbride challenged the Court’s ruling.

    “The majority opinion allows the State to extinguish state employees’ contractual rights to the raises,” Kilbride wrote, “while ignoring AFSCME’s argument that the right to recover the negotiated wages at issue in this case is protected by the contract clause of the Illinois Constitution. ...I would find that the General Assembly’s failure to appropriate sufficient funds to pay all of the salary increases did not erase the underlying obligation of the State.”

    Further challenging the Court’s logic, Kilbride asked if the General Assembly did not appropriate  enough funds, did that mean Illinois did not have to pay its bills?

    Suppose you are a road contractor and you sign a state contract to build a road.  If the money is not appropriated, can Illinois refuse to pay you?

    “Today’s decision may, in fact, further impair the State’s ability to function,” Kilbride continued.  The State of Illinois must finance its affairs, purchase products and supplies, contract for public improvements, infrastructure and various services, but, apparently, under the majority’s approach, the State has no obligation to pay for those products, improvements, and services.”

    A signed contract is a contract, was Kilbride’s basic logic.  If one contract partner does not provide sufficient funds, the contract should still stand and being legally binding -- at least those were the rules in Illinois until March 24.

    by Mike Matejka


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