State's attorney says lawyers in his office don't have the right to form a union. Others say....

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.suntimes.com/news/otherviews/489388,CST-NWS-contro30.article

Devine power
PROSECUTORS' PAY | State's attorney says lawyers in his office don't have the right to form a union. Others say that's not true.

July 30, 2007
BY ERIC HERMAN Staff Reporter/[e-mail]

Beneath the brouhaha about cost-of-living increases for Cook County prosecutors lurks a basic truth: Assistant state's attorneys don't have a union.

State's Attorney Dick Devine says it would be illegal for his prosecutors to form one. Others disagree. In fact, assistant state's attorneys in Will County have a union.

Lawyers in Devine's office want pay increases they say they were promised in February -- the same given to lawyers in the Cook County Public Defender's office, who represent poor people accused of crimes. That cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, was retroactive to 2004, amounting to a raise of more than 12 percent.

It's that disparity that has prosecutors furious. They say the County Board values defending alleged criminals more highly than prosecuting them.

Or, as First Assistant State's Attorney Robert Milan said last week, "This world is upside down when public defenders who represent criminals make more than the men and women in this office."

The reason public defenders got raises while assistant state's attorneys did not can be summed up in three words: AFSCME Local 3315. AFSCME -- The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees -- has represented the county's public defenders since 1987. County Board President Todd Stroger, like his father and predecessor John Stroger, has every incentive to placate powerful labor unions.

FULL story at link.