Link to Original Story

Picketing for pay

BY BRENT STEWART
THE SOUTHERN

On the normally quiet grounds of Choate Mental Health Center in Anna on Tuesday morning, about 40 to 50 members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees gathered - in some cases with their children - in protest.

The crowd held signs that said "Collective Bargaining is the American Way" and chanted loudly in unison:

"Gov. Quinn, keep your word" and "Take our pay, no way."

The AFSCME members gathered in Anna were just one of 75 worksites across the state where organized informational pickets sought to bring awareness to a proposal by Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn's plan to cancel pay raises for 30,000 unionized state employees.

On Friday, AFSCME filed a lawsuit in U.S. Central District Court to force Quinn to fulfill the 2008 contract the union signed with then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich. That deal guaranteed a 15 percent pay increase for many AFSCME members over a four-year period. This is the last year of that contract; the pay hikes were supposed to take effect July 1.

"I'm from the old school," said state Sen. John O. Jones, R-Mount Vernon. "When you shake hands, you have a contract, when you sign your name, you have a contract. And it's a binding contract."

The Illinois legislature's Joint Committee on Administrative Rules postponed a decision until at least August on whether to pay the promised 2 percent raises to thousands of workers, many of whom are members of the state's largest public employee union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, or AFSCME.

At an event in Chicago on Tuesday, Quinn continued to contend that he had to withhold the raises because lawmakers didn't put enough money into the budgets of 14 agencies.

"I cannot give them money that the General Assembly has not appropriated," Quinn said. "If they want a raise, they should contact their local legislator."

But state Sen. Dale Righter, R-Mattoon, said lawmakers did not sign the deal with AFSCME. He added that lawmakers wrote the budget approved last month and the money for the raises was not included.

"The majority in both the House and the Senate both approved a budget that clearly had personal service lines insufficient to pay these raises," said Righter.

Even though the governor did not sign the current contract with AFSCME, Quinn did agree to a 2009 deal with the union that guarantees he cannot close state facilities or lay off union workers until next year. Lawmakers, particularly GOP legislators, have said the 2009 deal hamstrings Quinn as much as the raises promised in the 2008 contract.

Other informational pickets took place locally at state worksites in Chester, Harrisburg, Ina, Marion, Murphysboro and Pinckneyville.

Greg Foreman, Juvenile Justice Specialist at Murphysboro Youth Center and president of AFSCME Local 2335, said the union was more than willing to negotiate with Quinn, and had already made many concessions.

Foreman contrasted their sacrifices with raises approved by Quinn last summer for more than 200 of his closest advisers and top staff members. Foreman said state employees have already deferred parts of wage increases taken unpaid furlough days and made changers to their health plans, saving the state $70 million dollars.

"A deal's a deal," Foreman said. "If the union were to say, we're not going to honor the agreement we made with you, the state, they really don't have the power to do that. The power is in their court."

Foreman also said the union will soon start negotiations with the state for the next contract.

"If they want to make any change, that's the time to do it," he said.

At Pinckneyville Correctional Center, about 100 AFSCME employees showed up Tuesday afternoon in half-hour shifts after work hours, on their day off or while on vacation, and 200 were expected in total.

Randy Hellman, a supply supervisor 3 at Pinckneyville Correctional Center and AFSCME Local 943 president, said the picket was not against Gov. Quinn, but against the actions taken by the governor and the legislature.

"I don't think either group is doing the right thing," Hellman said.

Hellman said it wasn't that union workers aren't sympathetic to the state's financial problems, but they did not create the present situation.

"We expect our commitment to be adhered to," Hellman said. "What if we wouldn't come to work?"

Hellman pointed to Carl McFarlane, an officer at Pinckneyville Correctional Center, as an example of the dangers they face on the job. McFarlane was recently attacked by an inmate, giving him three stitches in his mouth, torn abdominal muscles and a hernia.