AFSCME members picket vendors conference, delay meeting

SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOISLoud chants of "vendors go home" greeted business representatives who arrived at the Department of Corrections today for a mandatory meeting for those seeking to bid on providing dietary services to the Illinois Department of Corrections. The chants came from more than 200 DOC employees from across the state who were protesting the privatization of these services.

"Privatizing these services creates a serious security risk for our members," said Tom McLaughlin, regional director of AFSCME Council 31. "People who provide food service directly supervise inmates who are working with items that can be used as weapons. This work is security work and only people who have that experience and training should be doing it."

The picketers, who gathered outside the Concordia Court building an hour before the meeting was scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m., went inside to attend the meeting. When told they could not attend, they countered that it was a public meeting and they weren't going to leave. They continued chanting in the hallways.

DOC officials then moved the meeting to the auditorium, and it began 40 minutes after the scheduled starting time. Vendors asked no questions of DOC officials during the meeting.

"People are very angry about this," said McLaughlin, explaining the protesters' unwillingness to leave, even after the meeting. Privatizing services not only presents a security risk, he said, it means taking good-paying jobs and replacing them with lower-paying ones and it violates the Private Prison Moratorium Act. Further, said McLaughlin, there has been no reliable indicatino of how privatizing these services can save the state money without creating a security risk or harming local economies.

Governor George Ryan proposed privatizing prison commissary and dietary services as part of his slate of budget cuts introduced in late November.

Locals participating in today's protest included:

46: East Moline

117: IYC- Valley View

203: Centralia

359: Hanna City

415: Vienna

416: IYC-St. Charles

472: Sheridan

494: Pontiac

501: Lincoln

632: Decatur C.C.

779: IYC-Harrisburg

801: Kewanee

817: Dixon

943: Pinckneyville

993: Vandalia

1133: Dwight

1175: Menard

1274: Hill

1753: IYC-Joliet

1866: Stateville

2052: Danville

2073: Logan

2335: Murphysboro

2758: Tamms

2802: Joliet

2856: Graham

3549: Jacksonville

3436: IYC-Chicago

3567: Western

3585: Canton

3600: Lawrenceville

3605: Shawnee

3649: Robinson

3653: Taylorville

3654: Southwestern

3663: Big Muddy