It makes sense that both prosecutors and public defenders are paid the same for what they do. In the years since we gained a collective bargaining agreement, public defenders have seen their pay incease and surpass that of their counterparts due primarily to excellent negotiation by AFSCME and sacrifices and hard work by our members. And, in the past, prosecutors would get the same cost of living and health care that we negotiated at the table.
The last contract we negotiated gave us around 12.75% over four years and a $500 bonus, but the wage increases were not given to either management in our office or the state’s attorneys. This was something we as a union did not expect but reminded us of the benefits of being organized.
Now the prosecutors want parity and should get it. So should the supervisors in our office. The prosecutors claim they were promised 12.75% during the budget talks and now the promise has been broken by the board. (Remember how President Stroger wanted to take away 4% of our salary with furlough days and we had to go to the Circuit Court to get them to back off)? The board says that they couldn’t deliver because property at Oak Forest hospital hasn’t been sold to fund it. So yesterday, July 10th, hundreds of prosecutors did a job action and flooded the county board meeting with signs in their hand that said “12.75%”. They even cheered when their boss, Dick Devine, walked in to advocate for parity. The same Devine who for years has said that unionization for ASAs was “unconstitutional”.
Here’s our message to Cook County Prosecutors:
Get a union.
You want parity? Organize and pay your dues. And don’t go shooting yourself in the foot by going to the press and saying it would be illegal for you to form a union.
Nobody considers the Will County or Rock Island County State’s Attorneys to be a bunch of outlaws- yet they are unionized. The union contract for the Will County ASAs even gives them a $750 annual clothing allowance!
The time is right to get the Cook County Board to pass an ordinance that allows you to unionize. Get an ordinance. Get respect and you will have parity. And get your boss, Dick Devine, to back your efforts to organize. When he does, maybe assistant public defenders will applaud him too.
So forget about “promises” from the board. Unless of course you just want the money and not real rights for ASAs. Rights that prevent your wing commanders from bricking prosecutors who make jokes about bosses at retirement parties, firing career prosecutors because they are seen as “broken toys” who are taking off too much family time, and promoting favorites with impunity. Maybe prosecutors would rather forget the idea of a union and just continue trying to ride on the coattails of assistant public defenders. Just remember the old saying, “Union begins with U” and the choice is yours.
July 18th, 2007
Thank you for saying publicly what many of us have been saying privately for a long time! The prosecutors need to stop hating and get in the game.
July 26th, 2007
Great to see this excellent statement quoted on page 3 of today’s Chicago Sun Times. I hope Mr. Devine takes steps to allow the ASAs to organize. Fair raises would follow.
July 26th, 2007
If ASA Robert Milan believes that “Public Defenders represent criminals”( direct quote from the Sun Times article on page 3 of July 26, 2007) rather than the accused who are presumed innocent until proven guilty, then I have to disagree that prosecutors should receive equal pay. The prosecutors make $5,800 more than assistant public defenders when they first start. Seven years later, the payroll disparity between the starting salaries of assistant public defenders and prosecutors are reversed. I have never heard the prosecutors complain that our young attorneys are paid less during their first seven years on the job. I am sorry but I have lost all sympathy for the prosecutors and their fight with for a decent wage when the First Assistant loses sight of the constitutional rights of all of our citizens who are entitled to the presumption of innocence.
July 27th, 2007
Ingrid:
I don’t think we should punish all ASAs because one of their top management people says something stupid. Would we want our brothers and sisters to be held responsible for what one of our brain surgeons who can’t find the courthouse says to the press? More importantly, can you imagine how our next contract negotiations will go if the ASAs have not reached parity? Don’t think too many county honchos will support raises for us that increase the gap between PDs and those who “represent the victims”…and our contract expires at the end of 2008!
July 27th, 2007
The Chicago Reader rips Milan’s comments in its political blog on the Reader website.
http://blogs.chicagoreader.com/politics/2007/07/26/rule-law/#comments
One of the comments posted in response to the blog asserts that our office is implicated in finding jobs for politically-connected members of the HDO.
July 30th, 2007
Here is a link to Carol Marin’s column from the Sunday Sun Times: http://www.suntimes.com/news/marin/487688,CST-EDT-CAROL29.article
July 30th, 2007
If PDs work so hard, why do many at juvenile court leave by 2:30 and have outside legal jobs?
July 30th, 2007
Our union contract negotiations should not be affected by Devine’s public relations campaign promoting the legal fiction of “parity with assistant public defenders”
The States Attorney is a constitutional officers with the rights and duties “analogous to or largely coincident with the Attorney General, though not identical” Nagano, 389 Ill. at 249. He is the “attorney and legal adviser of the county officials in all matters pertaining to the official business of the County. Ashton v. Cook County. 384 Ill. at 297.
Parity should exist between the Illinois Attorney General’s Office, not with a statutoryly created office like the Public Defender’s Office.
As the county’s attorney, the First Assistant of the CCSAO has made opened threats against the county board commissioners if the prosecutors do not get a pay raise. I see a conflict of interest created by his statements published in the Sun Times.
When assistant public defenders are fighting for a wage increase during contract negotiations, we have never threatened our clients and their legal representation by abandoning our legal and ethical obligations.
I am still very disturbed by the comments made by the First Assistant of the CCSAO.
July 30th, 2007
Response to inquiry as to why assistant public defenders may leave juvenille court at 2:30 p.m.
1. Neighborhood around Juvenile court is not the safest place to work late
2. county provides Wordperfect rather than Word on county computers but most attorneys have Word installed on their home computers. Consequently, if you begin any legal motions, briefs etc on the county computer, you will probably not be able to continue to work on them at home and its not safe to take public transportation after 6 pm.
3. Assistant Public Defenders located downtown at 69 West Washington work regularly after 6 pm because the building is located downtown in a safer area and the building is secured with entry only by keycard.