The 35,000 members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, a state employee union, are voting on a contract that will give them a 15.2% raise, 3.8% each of the four years of the contract.

In comparison, employees at Illinois State University are getting raises between 1.5% and 2%.

Illinois taxpayers must be very fond of its employees, because the AFSCME contract was deemed the best contract offered to state employees anywhere in the nation.

After federal mediators were introduced, the state and the AFSCME were able to reach an agreement on health insurance.  The state wanted to increase costs, and the union wanted them to be offset with a salary increase.  From the proposed raises, it looks like the AFSCME got what it wanted.

More details will be disclosed next week, and taxpayers should get an estimate of how much this contract, if agreed to, would cost them.

Click link below: “Pantagraph” to read the article.

New AFSCME contract: 15 percent wage hike over four years

By Kurt Erickson

August 27, 2008 4:04 PM CDT