SPRINGFIELD - The state's largest employees union has filed a lawsuit in Southern Illinois in an effort to prevent 2,600 layoffs planned by Gov. Pat Quinn.

The layoffs include hundreds of jobs at prisons in Decatur, Lincoln, Vandalia, East Moline and Vienna. The move was a key Quinn plan to reduce state government spending in the face of a large Illinois deficit.

The layoffs of more than 400 Corrections workers, including 58 in Decatur, were announced in early August. The workers at the correctional centers in Decatur, East Moline, Lincoln, Logan, Vandalia and Vienna facilities were included in the first phase of job cuts.

The number of layoffs at the other facilities included five at Lincoln, 117 at Logan, 113 in Vandalia and 51 in Vienna.

The second phase could bring the tally to more than 1,000 layoffs.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees says the layoffs are illegal, and they'll try to stop them. The suit was filed in Vienna, in Johnson County, where some of the layoffs would take place.

They're scheduled to take effect Sept. 30.

"AFSCME and our members are using every tool to prevent layoffs and the harm they will cause," Council 31 executive director Henry Bayer said in a statement.

Bayer said the state is required to bargain with the union over job cuts.

Quinn spokesman Bob Reed said the office wouldn't comment directly about the lawsuit.

"Governor Pat Quinn and members of his senior staff will work constructively with AFSCME leadership and union members to help rescue our state from its fiscal crisis," Reed said. "The governor and union leaders will formally come to the bargaining table in early September."

Quinn has asked union members to take 12 unpaid furlough days this year. But union officials haven't agreed, and have vocally opposed the idea.

There's no scheduled date for the suit to be heard in court, but AFSCME spokesman Anders Lindall said the union would like action before the layoffs are scheduled to take effect - Sept. 30.

Last year and early this year, a lawsuit by the union helped hold up the closure of the Pontiac prison, against the wishes of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

ON THE NET

A copy of the lawsuit can be found at: www.afscme31.org/cmaextras/AFSCMEAug09suit.pdf

mike.riopell@lee.net|789-0865