New Budget Proposal Cuts More Southern Illinois Workers

First, Whirlpool announced it would close the former Maytag Laundry Products production facility in Herrin resulting in 1000 lost jobs. Then, Technicolor Universal Media Services announced the closing of its plant in Pinckneyville, putting 438 people out of work.

This week the announcement came from the governor's office and was covered in political jargon but ultimately it portends more lost jobs for Southern Illinois and the state as a whole.

Officially, the governor's announcement, part of the continuing analysis of his budget proposal, said that the he was adopting a controversial 2005 study that said the Illinois corrections system needed more middle management, specifically shift commanders.

Reporters asked the governor about this seeming departure from his previous policies. Four years ago, the governor argued that middle management at the state's prisons was causing an undue burden on the state budget and recommended eliminating most of the captain positions in they system. So, the captains were promoted to major, demoted to lieutenant or simply laid off.

A spokesman for the governor responded to reporters that now calling for more middle management was not a reversal of Gov. Rod Blagojevich's actions from four years ago. However, he offered no explanation for how it is any different than it appears.

The governor's new proposal calls for adding shift commanders and eliminating lieutenant positions. The lieutenants are represented by the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees. As such, they are eligible for overtime time pay when they take on additional work.

When the captains' positions were eliminated four years ago, they took on the extra work and many of them double as shift commanders. The governor's proposal would be to take away that extra work and instead place it in the hands of an appointed manager.

The proposal also calls for eliminating 111 lieutenants statewide. Most would have the option of taking a pay cut and demotion, but some would simply lose their jobs. According to corrections officers, there are already times when there is only one lieutenant on duty.

The spouse of one of the lieutenants who is likely not to lose his job explains the problem this way: Her husband has worked for the department for more than 20 years, earned his promotions through hard work and dedication and is likely facing a pay cut of 30 percent in July if the governor's recommendations are adopted by the General Assembly.

She said that since the General Assembly acquiesced to the governor's request four years ago, she has no reason to believe that they will fight him this time. And then, the shift commander positions will be filled with political appointees rather than the professionals who currently hold the positions.

"Yes, I am very vested in this. We stand to lose 30 percent of what we make and last month our electric bill increased 100 percent because of the state's decisions. Obviously, someone in Springfield can't do math because it adds up to destroying the Southern Illinois economy."

In January, a rate freeze on electric rates ended and many consumers in the southern portion of the state have seen increases of up to 100 percent in their monthly electric bill, for usage that is the same or less than the previous month's.

The lieutenant's wife said she is particularly frustrated by the promises of statewide politicians who only seem to pay attention to the southern region of the state during election years. Now, she said, though the governor campaigned on a platform of bringing jobs to the region, he is taking them away.

"But he makes it sound as though he is helping the corrections officers," she said. "The story in the paper said there will be a net increase of 124 and 65 of them will be corrections officers, what most people think of as prison guards. Unfortunately, what I suspect he forgot to mention is that those will not be new hires. They will be lieutenants who took the demotion and pay cut rather than be completely without a job. And, none of the stories mentioned how many political appointees there will be."