The state’s largest public workers union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 31, will announce the results of their strike vote count during a press conference Thursday morning in Springfield.

AFSCME represents 38,000 state employees and will announce the results at 10:30 Thursday morning on whether the votes authorize their union bargaining committee to call a strike if necessary. Of those, roughly 28,000 employees can strike while the others work security jobs and are forbidden from striking.

Governor Bruce Rauner broke off negotiations with the union more than a year ago, walking away and refusing to meet with the AFSCME bargaining committee ever since.

AFSCME says Rauner has been seeking the power to unilaterally impose his own harsh demands, including a 100 percent hike in employee costs for health care that would take $10,000 out of the pocket of the average state worker, a four-year wage freeze and an end to safeguards against irresponsible privatization.

Last fall, the Illinois Labor Relations Board agreed talks between the governor and union were at an impasse, which opened the door for the administration to impose its last, best and final offer on the union.

The union has challenged the implementation of a new labor contract in court.