* From the Illinois Policy Institute’s news service…

[Illinois Policy Institute Staff Attorney Mailee Smith] was at the [Illinois Labor Relations Board] hearing in Chicago. She said the labor board wasn’t willing to go into uncharted territory recommended by the Administrative Law Judge, which said in September there was impasse on some issues, but not on others.

“The board rejected that outright with actually very little discussion,” Smith said. None of them were interested in discussing that because it was really a more of a renegade approach to determining whether or not the two parties are at impasse.”

Rauner’s administration said they’re hopeful AFSCME will partner with the state on how to best implement the contract. AFSCME vowed to appeal the decision to the appellate court.

An appeal to the courts could take months, Smith said.

* SJ-R…

Springfield-area lawmakers said the contract should be resolved at the bargaining table.

“I maintain my earlier calls for both sides of the negotiation, which includes the administration and the union, to go back to the table and negotiate a fair contract,” said Rep. Sara Wojcicki Jimenez, R-Leland Grove.

“I think both sides should sit at the table and negotiate,” said Rep. Tim Butler, R-Springfield. “Obviously that was not going to happen once it got appealed to the labor board, but now that we’ve got a ruling from the labor board and the union knows very squarely now that the governor can implement the last, best and final offer that they put down there, I would urge both sides to get back to the table and negotiate a contract that’s fair to all sides.”

The Labor Relations Board is appointed by the governor. Rauner appointed two members and reappointed two others who were initially appointed by then-Gov. Pat Quinn. The fifth member is also a Quinn appointee.

* Tribune…

At the crux of that dispute is Rauner’s desire to make it easier for the state to subcontract to the private sector for services ordinarily performed by state workers. Rauner’s team initially wanted unlimited ability to subcontract, saying it needed flexibility to find cost savings to get the state’s finances in order. AFSCME rejected that proposal outright.

The Rauner administration came back with a modified proposal for what’s known as “managed competition,” where the union would compete with private companies in bidding for contracts. The two sides spent months trading language on the idea, discussing it over the course of 21 bargaining days.

On the day that the Rauner team decided the talks were deadlocked, AFSCME had proposed adding language requiring that bids from private contractors would have to “meet the standard of greater efficiency, economy or other related factors” — language that the administration already had made clear it opposed.

“Subcontracting was the insurmountable issue that really got to the heart of the beliefs of both parties,” said labor board member Keith Snyder, a former mayor of Lincoln appointed by Rauner last year. “Dealing with what the state is trying to deal with in terms of financial crisis, and AFSCME trying to deal with protection of jobs and members’ jobs and things like that.”

* Now, remember this quote from yesterday?…

“The contract, mirroring agreements we have already reached with eighteen other unions, includes merit pay for the vast majority of AFSCME employees and the same forty-hour work week requirement that applies to most employees outside state government,” Rauner spokeswoman Catherine Kelly said in a statement. “It will also allow individuals to volunteer their time to help fellow Illinois residents through things like assisting social services agencies, cleaning up state parks, or training state employees.”

* I asked the administration about that “volunteer their time” stuff…

At the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Manteno facility had volunteers which were performing receptionist duties, such as answering the phone and directing visitors. The union grieved erosion and after an expedited arbitration, the DVA is no longer permitted to use volunteers to perform these duties.

At the Department of Natural Resources, there was an issue with volunteers at the Visitors Center at Ft. Massac. Volunteers manning the visitor center while Site Technicians were outside in the unfavorable weather. The employees were displeased with the treatment of the volunteers and filed a grievance for erosion. The site had to cease the use of volunteers.

More background is in this Chicago Tribune editorial.

* Meanwhile…

The election of Donald Trump is likely to mean big changes for the National Labor Relations Board, which could begin to roll back the Obama administration’s agenda of expanding employee and union rights, according to employment litigators.

The NLRB now has a 2-1 Democratic majority with two empty seats. “I expect [the two vacancies] will be filled by Republican, employer-friendly nominees as soon as the President-elect nominates them and their nominations are confirmed by the Senate,” Jennifer Platzkere Snyder, an employment attorney at Dilworth Paxson LLP in Philadelphia, told Law Blog.

The NLRB supervises union elections, referees disputes between employers and employees and interprets the National Labor Relations Act, the federal law that governs labor-management relations for most private sector workers.

In a wave of rulings and legal determinations, the NLRB under the Obama administration has rejected class-action waivers in employment arbitration; made it easier for contract workers and other temporary employees to unionize; paved the way for student unionization on campuses nationwide; potentially made it easier for unions to organize fast-food workers and hold franchisers in a range of industries to greater liability in labor matters.

“A new Board with a Republican majority is likely to revisit” all these issues, says Jackson Lewis PC, a firm that represents employers.