The Illinois Labor Relations Board began hearings Monday on whether contract negotiations between Governor Bruce Rauner's administration and the state's biggest public employee union-- AFSCME-- are at an impasse.
Rauner walked away from the bargaining table in January and wants the labor board to determine there is an impasse. If the governor wins AFSCME members would have to take the state's last, best offer on things like wages and health insurance... or they could strike.
Stephen Yokich, the lawyer representing the union, told the administrative judge the governor was not negotiating in good faith.
"The employer had predetermined resolve and it had to have things it's way or no other way because it was bound by the prior positions it staked out in public. It was constrained," Yokich said.
Rauner's administration argues that giving into AFSCME's contract demands would require the state to spend money it doesn't have during the current fiscal crisis.