Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner has the hardest job in America—saving Illinois from public union power—so wish him luck in his latest showdown. For a year he has been trying to negotiate a new contract with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (Afscme) that represents some 40,000 public workers in Illinois. The talks have been going nowhere, so on Friday he asked the state’s labor relations board to rule on whether the negotiation is at an impasse.
Although the union’s contract expired last summer, a “tolling agreement” means the previous contract’s terms continue until a new contract is signed. That gives union leaders little incentive to bargain in good faith. Mr. Rauner has made deals with other unions, including the Teamsters, and he recently said he’d start a merit-pay system for state workers, giving them a chance to earn bonuses. But Afscme rejected the idea, calling bonuses based on “subjective” criteria “tone-deaf and heartless.”
Afscme leaders prefer the status quo, in which union clout matters more than worker performance. That has been costly for Illinois taxpayers. Between 2005 and 2014, Afscme base salaries increased 49%, to an average base of $66,582 in 2014 from $44,583 in 2005. That cost the state some $3.5 billion more than it would have if salaries had grown at the rate of inflation. State pension obligations to Afscme workers have also grown at an unsustainable pace in the high-tax, slow-growth Illinois economy.