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20 Military Affairs security officers being laid off

Posted October 01, 2007 11:00 pm

Dana Heupel

Twenty security officers from the Illinois Department of Military Affairs learned this week they will be laid off Nov. 1.

They are stationed at four National Guard installations: Camp Lincoln in Springfield, Decatur, Marseilles and North Riverside, said Lt. Col. Alicia Tate-Nadeau, director of public affairs for the department. The guards are state employees but are almost entirely funded through the federal government, she said, which cut money for their positions by 66 percent.

"It really comes down to the fact that we do not have the federal funding," Tate-Nadeau said.

The union that represents the security staff, however, questions that.

"We believe the layoffs have nothing to do with funds," said Terry Reed, field service director with the Illinois Federation of Teachers, which is affiliated with the security staff's bargaining unit, Local 4408 of the Illinois Federation of Public Employees.

He contended that private security guards hired by Military Affairs will assume the duties of the laid-off workers.

"It's our understanding … that they're going to keep the private security guards, Securitas, and lay off the 20 state employees," Reed said. Those 20, he said, represented the entire state security staff at those installations.

Tate-Nadeau acknowledged that Military Affairs employs about 70 private security staff but said they are not replacing the 20 state workers.

Since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, the federal government has issued stricter security requirements for state military installations, she said, and some of the state staff did not meet those requirements.

When the federal dollars were cut by two-thirds, Tate-Nadeau said, "it became an issue of making sure that, using the federal funds that were made available to us, that we could still meet the security requirements that were outlined."

She said she did not want to elaborate on the requirements for security reasons.

Reed said the Securitas guards are authorized to carry weapons, while the state employees are not. He questioned why the state guards could not be transferred to a different job classification that would allow them to carry firearms.

The union grieved the issue last year when the state hired another private security firm, which has since been replaced by Securitas, Reed said. An arbitrator has yet to decide that case, he said.

"That's why we believe this is purely retaliation," Reed said. "They could get rid of Securitas and use that money to pay state employees."

Most of the soon-to-be-laid-off guards "have been doing these jobs for 20 years or more," he said, adding that many are military veterans. "These are very experienced guys."

Tate-Nadeau stressed that "the state security guards truly are members of the Illinois Department of Military Affairs family, and the loss of their jobs is not something we take lightly."

"We truly are doing everything we can within our power to try to help set them up for success," she said.

Agency officials will meet with them at their work locations in coming days to talk about other options that might be available, Tate-Nadeau said.

Dana Heupel can be reached at (217) 788-1518 or dana.heupel@sj-r.com.

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