Amy
01-27-2005, 01:14 PM
http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050127/NEWS010504/50127011/1002
By Andy Kanengiser
akanengiser@clarionledger.com (akanengiser@clarionledger.com)
State employees lobbied at the Capitol today to give lawmakers a simple message: Please protect their jobs.
Mississippi Alliance of State Employees President Brenda Scott and other colleagues emphasized workers' job security at a news conference this morning and during informal meetings with lawmakers.
"I'm not worried about raises. We'd love to have money," Scott said at the Capitol today. "But what is a pay raise for those who lose their jobs?"
Scott said she's worried after a Senate panel voted Wednesday to extend the Mississippi Department of Human Services through July 2007, but remove state Personnel Board protections for its 3,200 workers.
A separate House-passed bill would continue DHS through 2009, and keep them under the Personnel Board.
Scott said she fears there will be many DHS workers fired as was the case when the Mississippi Department of Corrections last year was removed from Personnel Board protections to save millions of dollars. About 185 MDOC workers were fired last year in a cost-cutting move.
As part of his government streamlining plan, Gov. Haley Barbour "wants it all," Scott said.
Sen. Alice Harden, D-Jackson, a member of the Senate Labor Committee, said Scott's concerns about state employee job security are legitimate.
"The big issue is saving jobs," Harden said. "It is saving people and families."
Harden said Barbour's plan to pull a number of agencies out from under the Personnel Board to help solve Mississippi's budget crunch is "horrible."
This comes at a time when state employees are struggling to make ends meet and there is an "attack" on state worker health insurance, Scott said.
More than 61 percent of the state employees make less than the $29,000 average annual salary, Scott said. — MORE DETAILS AS THEY DEVELOP AND TOMORROW IN PRINT AND ONLINE EDITIONS
By Andy Kanengiser
akanengiser@clarionledger.com (akanengiser@clarionledger.com)
State employees lobbied at the Capitol today to give lawmakers a simple message: Please protect their jobs.
Mississippi Alliance of State Employees President Brenda Scott and other colleagues emphasized workers' job security at a news conference this morning and during informal meetings with lawmakers.
"I'm not worried about raises. We'd love to have money," Scott said at the Capitol today. "But what is a pay raise for those who lose their jobs?"
Scott said she's worried after a Senate panel voted Wednesday to extend the Mississippi Department of Human Services through July 2007, but remove state Personnel Board protections for its 3,200 workers.
A separate House-passed bill would continue DHS through 2009, and keep them under the Personnel Board.
Scott said she fears there will be many DHS workers fired as was the case when the Mississippi Department of Corrections last year was removed from Personnel Board protections to save millions of dollars. About 185 MDOC workers were fired last year in a cost-cutting move.
As part of his government streamlining plan, Gov. Haley Barbour "wants it all," Scott said.
Sen. Alice Harden, D-Jackson, a member of the Senate Labor Committee, said Scott's concerns about state employee job security are legitimate.
"The big issue is saving jobs," Harden said. "It is saving people and families."
Harden said Barbour's plan to pull a number of agencies out from under the Personnel Board to help solve Mississippi's budget crunch is "horrible."
This comes at a time when state employees are struggling to make ends meet and there is an "attack" on state worker health insurance, Scott said.
More than 61 percent of the state employees make less than the $29,000 average annual salary, Scott said. — MORE DETAILS AS THEY DEVELOP AND TOMORROW IN PRINT AND ONLINE EDITIONS