A judge in Johnson County, Illinois postponed yesterday the implementation of Governor Quinn's layoff plan for state employees, saying that the layoffs should go to arbitration. The largest union of state employees in the state, AFSCME Council 31, sued the state in effort to force the Governor to rethink the layoffs. Quinn has proposed 2,600 layoffs of state workers, which the union contends has not been fully thought-out. They say, for example, that further cuts at state prisons would create an unsafe working environment for the remaining prison employees. Quinn, for his part, says that "the state of Illinois is in fiscal peril," and maintains that without action on the budget crunch, the health and safety of Illinois residents will be jeopardized.
See "Judge puts brakes on Gov's layoff plans", Dave McKinney, Chicago Sun Times, September 28, 2009