Trying to Dodge the Ax
COs from Ohio and Illinois are getting the word out that, despite state and local fiscal crises, prison employees should be spared from the budget ax. In recent weeks, activists have stormed the capitols in their respective states to protest job cuts and facility closures.
In February, hundreds of state workers from the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association (OCSEA)/AFSCME Local 11 — together with members from Council 8, the Ohio Association of Public School Employees/AFSCME Local 4 and other unions — braved frigid temperatures to rally at the statehouse. They claimed that Gov. Bob Taft's (R) budget cuts undermine Ohio's "homeland security."
Chief among their concerns was a plan to shut the doors at the Orient Correctional Institute, which employees 450 people and houses 1,700 inmates. According to OCSEA officials, nearly 800 COs have been sliced from the state payroll since April 2001. The union has warned that the "steady elimination" of security personnel in the prison system has caused dangerously low staffing levels. At the rally, AFSCME Pres. Gerald W. McEntee roared: "Where are the 1,700 inmates going to go? With prisons already overcrowded, there's no room."
If there must be closures, members feel the state should shut down its two private prisons that are loaded with hidden costs and high turnover rates. Statistic after statistic has revealed that for-profit facilities are less secure than those operated by the government.
"We have a state that has been mismanaged for years, and it has now caught up with them," OCSEA Corrections Assembly Pres. Tim Shafer told the supporters. "I've talked with some of Ohio's legislators over the past few months, and they say that they haven't failed Ohio. [I say] they have just found hundreds of ways that don't work.
"To the legislators of Ohio: It's time to stop playing politics and start thinking about the safety of Ohio's taxpayers and close the private prisons."
In Illinois, Republican Gov. George Ryan, facing a $500-million budget deficit, is angering prison employees with plans for privatizing kitchen services in the Department of Corrections, closing a major facility and forced furloughs. In February, nearly 1,000 Council 31 members participated in Lobby Day at the capitol to protest privatization and the move to close Joliet Correctional Center, a 1,000-bed, maximum-security unit.
Demonstrators and a bi-partisan contingent of state lawmakers have taken exception to the governor's talk of privatizing cafeteria and commissary services. Stable employment and worker safety are their main concerns. "What's the contingency plan if that food service operator goes bankrupt? Who comes in and feeds the inmates?" Rep. Bill Black (R) told The Pantagraph. Said Rep. Tom Dart (D) about placing untrained workers in kitchens: "To do something like this, we're only endangering their lives."
The Illinois House unanimously approved H.R. 588, which calls for Ryan to halt his privatization crusade. In January, AFSCME filed a lawsuit to stop the effort.
Many union activists believe that shutting down Joliet will put employees' and citizens' safety at risk. They contend that the state's prisons are "severely" overcrowded and will be even more so if any facility is closed.
In another cost-cutting move, the governor has proposed temporary layoffs of state employees. Council 31 officials say that "solution" amounts to forced furloughs, which management, under the master contract, must negotiate with the union. Ryan is apparently using the temporary layoff strategy as a means to circumvent the agreement. According to the union, however, the contract requires that a temporary layoff be implemented in "absolute inverse seniority order."
Ryan's administrators broke off negotiations and began to implement a forced furlough day. The council filed a grievance and requested that managers agree to bypass the early stages of the procedure and go directly to arbitration. They balked, forcing the union to file a suit barring the governor from implementing the furlough until the grievance has been resolved.
