Illinois Governor Wins Dismissal of Public Workers’ Lawsuit
September 08, 2011, 4:50 PM EDTBy Andrew Harris
(Updates with Quinn’s comment in seventh paragraph.)
Sept. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Illinois Governor Pat Quinn won dismissal of a lawsuit by a public-employee union seeking to reverse an order freezing the pay of 30,000 government workers.
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees council representing Illinois workers alleged that the pay freeze violated its collective-bargaining agreements, according to a federal complaint filed July 8 in the state capital, Springfield.
“Requiring the state to issue pay raises would take money already allotted for other purposes from an underfunded budget and cause the state to run out of money even faster,” U.S. District Judge Sue Myerscough wrote yesterday in a 26-page ruling.
The union said it will appeal the decision, saying in a statement that that the facts “clearly counter the judge’s contention that the pay freeze is necessary to insure the state’s solvency.”
The governor said at a Chicago press conference today that he’s pleased with the court’s decision. He also said Illinois will have to lay off more than 1,900 employees and close seven state facilities including three mental health centers, two developmental centers and two correctional facilities.
Lieutenant Governor
Quinn, a Democrat, was elected to his first full term last year. He was elevated from lieutenant governor in January 2009 following the impeachment of predecessor Rod Blagojevich.
“We clearly do not enough money in the budget that was appropriated by the legislature in the spring to pay the personnel and the facility costs of a number of our facilities and people who work for the state of Illinois,” he said.
He called the wage freeze “phase 1” of the state’s budgeting and today’s announced closures and layoffs “phase 2.” The state has a $33.2 billion general fund budget for the current fiscal year which ends on June 30.
The union had said in its complaint that the employees have a contractual right to receive a 2 percent pay raise, which along with longevity-based increases, would cost about $75 million, according to state estimates.
‘Supplemental Appropriation’
“The governor could simply seek a supplemental appropriation if he believed one was necessary,” the union said in the statement. “Such a step is common; nine supplemental appropriations have been approved in just the past six years.”
The group also said the freeze is unfair because some workers in the 14 departments and agencies subject to it do the same kind of jobs as employees in other departments that aren’t affected.
Myerscough ruled that the wage freeze promoted “cost- containment,” which she called a legitimate government interest that trumped the workers’ claims of disparate treatment.
The case is Council 31 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO v. Quinn, 11-03203, U.S. District Court, Central District of Illinois (Springfield).
--Editors: Charles Carter, Andrew Dunn
To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Harris in Chicago at aharris16@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net
