Lawmakers call for return to bargaining but refuse to support HB 580, the fair arbitration bill

On May 30, state legislators had one final chance to override Governor Rauner’s veto of HB 580, the fair arbitration bill—but they failed to do so. The measure once again fell three votes short, with not a single Republican voting in support of the override motion.

On May 26, AFSCME Council 31 executive director Roberta Lynch received a letter also addressed to Governor Rauner from seven Republican state representatives urging both parties to resume state contract negotiations.

In her response to the lawmakers, Lynch agreed with the legislators’ call for renewed negotiations, reiterating the union’s oft-stated willingness to return to the bargaining table ever since the Rauner Administration broke off talks on January 8.

Lynch pointed out that HB 580—which these seven legislators did not support—could actually serve to foster such a renewed bargaining process. If the governor refuses to heed the lawmakers’ call to return to the bargaining table, she called on the seven legislators to commit to vote for a new motion to override the governor’s veto of the fair arbitration bill before the General Assembly’s scheduled adjournment on May 31.

When the governor immediately and sharply rejected the call to return to the bargaining table, Rep. Chris Welch, the chief sponsor of HB 580, decided to give the seven Republican legislators another opportunity to demonstrate that they truly want to see negotiations resume—by voting to override the governor’s veto.

But when the motion was put before the House of Representatives again, and even when Rep. Welch called on each of the letter-writers by name and urged them to vote the interests of their constituents, not a single one of those seven Republicans—Norrine Hammond, C.D. Davidsmeyer, Don Moffitt, Adam Brown, Terri Bryant, Avery Bourne or Sarah Jimenez—voted to override the governor’s veto of HB 580.

It’s now all too clear that the letter they sent was nothing more than a political stunt—offering empty words of concern for state employees, while voting to back up Bruce Rauner’s efforts to impose his extreme and harmful demands.

It’s also very clear that these legislators are responsive to one man in the Governor’s Mansion—not to constituents in their districts.