The leader of the labor union which represents some 20,000 state employees presented his contract proposal to the Reynold’s Administration Thursday.

AFSCME Council 61 president, Danny Homan says they are requesting the return to the contract language used before the new collective bargaining law was passed. He says they want language excluded by the revised law returned, along with a 3% across the board pay increase in July of 2019 and July of 2020.

The new law restricted the bargaining rights of state unions. Republicans retained control of the House, Senate and Governor’s office, and Homan says he has no idea of the state will agree to go back to the bargaining law they used to have. “I would like to think at some point in time that somebody would decide that it makes sense to propose and deal with language makes sense for the state,” Homan says.

He says the change in the law is not working. “Right now there are no rules, a lot of departments just do whatever it is they want to do, and I think it would make sense to not operate that way,” Homan says. “It’s not up to me.”

Homan says the pay raise he is requesting is not extravagant. “We’re coming off a contract where we got one percent each year. So, I’m not proposing an inflated amount, I am proposing what I believe to be a reasonable proposal,” according to Homan.

Negotiators representing the Reynolds Administration will make a counter-offer on December 19th.