(MCT) — House Speaker Michael Madigan shot down a union coalition's proposal to have a summit on government worker pensions, saying Wednesday that organized labor has had input but "strongly opposed" efforts to fix the state's finances.

Madigan, the state's Democratic Party chairman, called for unions to come to the bargaining table with an "honest proposal that recognizes the state's serious fiscal condition and puts government employees on par with those in the private sector relative to a benefits package."