Judge blocks layoffs at Pontiac prison
A judge has temporarily blocked the state from laying off workers at a central Illinois prison it plans to close by the end of the year.
Livingston County Judge R. Michael Travers issued a temporary injunction late Friday in a lawsuit brought by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees over the state's plan to close the Pontiac Correctional Center.
The union sued two state agencies, including the Department of Corrections, claiming it did not meet a legal obligation to bargain with AFSCME before it began sending layoff notices to the prison's 570 employees.
The judge barred layoffs until the union's grievances have been arbitrated.
The judge's decision lent credence to the union's belief that the state and Gov. Rod Blagojevich rushed into their plan to close the prison, union Executive Director Henry Bayer said Friday.
"They failed to bargain with our union, they disregarded the prison system's dangerous overcrowding, and they ignored Pontiac's unique role in that system's safe operation," Bayer said in an e-mailed statement.
Department of Corrections spokesman Derek Schnapp had no immediate comment.
"We just got the decision and we will have to consult with the attorney general's office on what to do next, as they were representing us in this case," he said.
Blagojevich and IDOC plan to close Pontiac -- a maximum security prison where high-risk, violent inmates are kept in individual cells -- by the end of the year, saying the state will save $4 million a year for the next two years.
The union and local leaders in Pontiac, which stands to lose its second-largest employer if the prison closes, say the move is political. They believe Blagojevich is punishing Pontiac for its state legislators' support of a recall measure aimed at the governor.
About half of Pontiac's inmates are headed to a much newer, largely unused prison in Thomson in northwest Illinois. Last month, IDOC transferred 100 inmates out of Pontiac and into prisons in East Moline and Taylorville, AFSCME said.
AFSCME filed a grievance on Oct. 24, saying IDOC had begun closing Pontiac without bargaining over the closure's impact on employees, which union officials say is required under a collective bargaining agreement and "memorandum of understanding" (MOU) between the parties.
The grievance also alleged "it would violate the contract to lay employees off because such layoffs would not be due to lack of work or other legitimate reasons," according to the lawsuit.
On Oct. 27, IDOC announced its intention to begin layoffs, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit names the Illinois Department of Central Management Services, the Illinois Department of Corrections and the agencies' directors as defendants.
AFSCME has filed three lawsuits over Pontiac.
Earlier this week, a judge in Johnson County temporarily blocked IDOC from moving inmates out of Pontiac pending resolution of one of the other lawsuits.
That suit claims the closure creates safety concerns by moving maximum-security inmates to lockups that aren't built to handle them. A hearing is scheduled on Dec. 1.
AFSCME is also the lead plaintiff in a separate pending lawsuit, filed in Livingston County in September, that argues Blagojevich can't legally use money the General Assembly appropriated for the Pontiac prison at other facilities.