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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Employees stunned by news of cutbacks |
Current rating: 0 |
by the Pantagraph
(No verified email address) |
29 Nov 2001
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I'm glad to see the Pantagraph reporting and following up on this important issue. As 2002 nears, there will be questions we must ask of our political leaders. If Gov.
Ryan is able to privatize these jobs then it will send a message to Illinois that this sort of behavior is acceptable in a time of crisis. From a human rights point
of view, I do not believe Gov. Ryan should "swing his axe" against public workers. NB |
Employees stunned by news of cutbacks
By M.K. Guetersloh and Bob Holliday
Pantagraph staff
SPRINGFIELD -- Food service and housekeeping workers at several state institutions on Wednesday said they felt like Gov. George Ryan gave them an unwelcome early Christmas
present -- a budget-cutting plan that might cost them their jobs.
"This is very upsetting to me, regardless of the fact that it's holiday time because I have no other means of support," said Carol Zang, who is on the dietary staff at
William Fox Developmental Center in Dwight. "I hope it doesn't go through."
Privatizing food and housekeeping services at prisons, mental-health centers and facilities for developmentally disabled residents was part of a plan Ryan announced Tuesday. Also included in his plan to close a $500 million gap were closing Joliet Correctional Center and ordering one-day furloughs for 60,000 state workers.
"The timing is unreal," said union official Bill Hess, noting that Christmas is near. Hess is president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
Local 2073 at Logan Correctional Center in Lincoln.
There are about a dozen food-service workers who prepare three meals a day for 1,900 inmates and 265 correctional officers at Logan, Hess said. He's worried about those
workers' financial security.
Hess said he suspects there would be no cost savings in privatization in any case. |
