Nearly four years after the last contract expired, a new labor agreement has been reached between the state of Illinois and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

Both the union, which represents nearly 40,000 state employees, and Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration released identical statements that an agreement was reached early Friday morning. Friday is also the last day of the spring legislative session and the day that the General Assembly has to approve a budget for the next fiscal year.

Neither side would discuss details of the agreement until after union members have a chance to ratify the agreement.

“With this tentative agreement, Illinois has turned another important page from years of brutal ideological warfare,” Pritzker said in a statement. “This agreement will be accommodated in the budget that the General Assembly will vote on today, and even more importantly, it is consistent with my long-term plans to stabilize Illinois’ finances.”

AFSCME executive director Roberta Lynch said the agreement “reflects a fresh start for public service workers in state government.”

“For four years, union members did their jobs and served their communities despite Bruce Rauner’s chaos, hostility and constant attacks,” Lynch said. “In the Pritzker administration, AFSCME members have an employer who understands the importance of their work, respects their rights and is a constructive partner in the collective bargaining process.”

The last AFSCME contract expired on June 30, 2015, six months into the new Rauner administration. Although negotiations on a new contract started months before then, the two sides could never come to an agreement. AFSCME said the administration was demanding excessive increases in health insurance costs, a pay freeze and the ability to farm out work to private contractors.

In January, 2016, the Rauner administration declared that negotiations had reached an impasse, something that would allow the administration to impose its contract terms. The state Labor Relations Board ruled an impasse existed and AFSCME went to court to stop the Rauner administration from implementing its contract terms. A state appeals court vacated the ILRB ruling and sent the issue back to the state panel. The issue was unresolved when Rauner was defeated for re-election.

Negotiations resumed during the last week of March, about two months after Pritzker took office.

AFSCME spokesman Anders Lindall said the union has been given assurances from legislators that the budget will include money to resolve the back pay issue. Rauner halted step increases to union employees after the previous contract expired. A court said the administration didn’t have the authority to do that and ordered that union workers be paid any step increases that were owed to them. Some workers were given a portion of their money, but back pay is still owed to thousands of union members.

Contact Doug Finke: doug.finke@sj-r.com, 788-1527, twitter.com/dougfinkesjr.