Rauner backs off IDOC nurse layoffs
<span style="font-weight: 400;">The Illinois Department of Corrections has notified the Illinois Nurses Association that it has withdrawn its plan to lay off 124 nurses - including 13 at Menard Correctional Center in Chester - in favor of continued negotiations with the union.</span>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">According to the Associated Press, IDOC spokeswoman Nicole Wilson said the INA has been informed that the nurses would not be removed on June 15, a deadline previously established by Ed Jackson - chief of Labor Relations in Gov. Bruce Rauner's administration - in a letter to the union dated March 18.</span>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">Wilson told the AP that IDOC officials are available to meet anytime, but INA representatives are unavailable until May 8. In a written statement, the union stated that while the news was welcome, it wasn't clear what the IDOC intends with its decision.</span>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">Previously, the INA had accused the Rauner administration of using the threat of layoffs as a retaliatory tactic after the union rejected IDOC's contract demands.</span>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">In March, Wilson told the Herald Tribune in an email that the IDOC's plan to privatize the nurses was designed to "streamline the delivery of medical services within the IDOC."</span>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">"A small amount of medical professionals who provide care in IDOC facilities are actually employed by the state," Wilson wrote. "Most are employed through Wexford, the medical vendor.</span>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">"Wexford is prepared to hire most of the nurses who will be impacted by the layoff."</span>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">Since the layoff announcement, legislation, Senate Bill 19, has been introduced. SB19, which essentially prevents IDOC from privatizing its medical and mental health employees, passed the Illinois House on a 68-42 vote and was sent to Rauner on April 7.</span>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">"Provides that the Department shall not enter into a contract, modify a current contract, or process a change order that would have the effect of reducing the number of Department employees whose employment is related to the provision of medical or mental health services lower than the number of Department employees on January 1, 2016," an amendment to the bill states.</span>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">The legislation requires IDOC to employ a minimum of 300 nursing and medical support staff. Supporters have said the bill would ensure a proper standard of medical care in IDOC, while critics have said that it preserves union jobs even while the state's prison population declines.</span>