Gov.-elect JB Pritzker’s Monday inauguration will mark the beginning of the end in two separate years-long battles with the state’s largest public employee union, AFSCME Council 31 — battles that have gone from the negotiating table to the Illinois Labor Relations Board, and eventually to court.
A sign urging Gov. Bruce Rauner to keep negotiating on a contract with AFSCME is displayed in the window of the union’s Springfield office on February 23, 2017 — the same day the union authorized a strike, which never ended up happening.