Union Objects To Illinois Budget Cuts
The union for prison workers is vowing to fight Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn’s budget plans to cut prison spending by about $65 million by implementing new work schedules for guards, ending several programs and closing facilities. Reported by the Galesburg Register-Mail.
Quinn plans to not fully open the prison in Thomson, cut out funding for the anti-gun violence program Operation Ceasefire and close both the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center and Pere Marquette Youth Center, a youth prison for girls in southern Illinois …
Quinn also wants to make security staff work 12-hour shifts for three or four days a week, on an alternating schedule. Those employees now work five, eight-hour workdays each week. The agency projects it will spend $61 million in overtime costs in the current budget year. Switching to the new schedule, it estimates, would cut that overtime cost to $13.1 million next year. Corrections spokespeople say the savings will help the agency hire 183 additional workers to ease staffing issues and give workers who already are working 12-hour and 16-hour shifts more flexible work schedules …
Anders Lindall, a spokesman for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31, calls the 12-hour shift an “accounting trick” that merely “redefines what is currently considered overtime as straight time” … Terry Baker, a correctional officer and union local president at the Taylorville prison, said the additional hires fall far short of helping with serious overtime problems, and asking guards to work longer hours isn’t a solution. “You’re just asking for problems,” Baker said. “You’re always going to have some kind of overtime. It may not be as much, but you’re still going to have some. There’s no thought given to what you do in that situation. Do you work a person 24 hours straight?” …
The governor says he’s open to resolving the union’s concerns. “I think we’re going to come up with a good solution,” Quinn said Wednesday at an appearance in Springfield. “Life is sometimes a dialogue and negotiation and that’s the way it should be. The employer, the union that represents the employees, I’m sure can come to a good conclusion. I’m optimistic about that.”
Economic Issues, Illinois, Officer Contract Issues, Personnel Issues
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