

Rhode Island Governor Don Carcieri executed the first step in a sweeping plan to cut state jobs yesterday, telling dozens of state workers they were out of a job and notifying hundreds more that they may be laid off in the coming months.
Carcieri refused yesterday to identify the targeted jobs, promising to do so today.
But information that bubbled to the surface from upset state employees, and their union representatives, indicated the potential job cuts go well beyond the “lawyers and back office” workers Carcieri had previously identified as targets.
Copies of layoff and warning notices provided by union officials yesterday show cuts largely targeted at jobs in the state’s welfare and hospital arenas, including interpreters who work with poor immigrants, and workers in one of the last psychiatric units at Eleanor Slater Hospital. The governor also laid the groundwork for closing the West Warwick branch of the Division of Motor Vehicles by putting its staff on notice that their jobs, too, are on the chopping block.
While it could not be determined how many layoff notices actually went out yesterday in Carcieri’s continuing effort to plug a budget hole that may run as high as $450 million next year, top aides said a day earlier that 157 state workers would receive actual layoff notices, and 379 more would get warnings that their jobs may also be eliminated in the future, an approach that spawned anger and fear.
“To do what they did to these people on the so-called ‘B-list’ is nothing other than, I think, showing off to the public and trying to make it seem like we’re laying off more people than he truly is. That upsets me,” said J. Michael Downey, president of Council 94, American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees.
Molly Soum was among those whose fears were confirmed yesterday.
The 37-year-old Providence woman has spent the last 10 years working with Southeast Asian communities for the state Department of Human Services. She spends every Thursday helping Cambodian speakers fill out forms for housing and health care, among other things.
“It’s embarrassing for my family and the communities I represent,” Soum said of her layoff notice. “The governor talks about the financial crisis for the state. What about the financial crisis for my family? What about the financial crisis for my four kids?”
Soum, whose husband died nine months ago, is one of at least four interpreters who will lose their jobs. Both of the state’s Cambodian interpreters were laid off yesterday, as was one Portuguese interpreter and another who works with the Laotian and Hmong communities.
The governor’s office said Spanish interpreters were spared from this round of job cuts and the state will depend on private companies to provide translators for the Asian communities.
Across state government yesterday, nervous state employees waited to hear from their supervisors whether their names, too, were on the list.
Glenn Dusalbon, president of AFSCME Local 2869, waited with a 69-year-old data entry clerk at the Department of Labor and Training until she got the call to go to the department director’s office.
“It was almost like going to an execution,” Dusalbon said. “It was a long, long walk.”
“I had to sit there with a 69-year-old woman crying her eyes out saying, ‘After 32 years of service, this is all I get?’ ”
While some went home in tears, others left “embarrassed.”
As AFSCME Local 2884 president Salvatore Lombardi explained: “It’s embarrassing because ... it’s like they’ve done something wrong. You know, people who do things wrong lose their job ... Not people who come to work everyday, put in their 7, 8 hours like they are supposed to, feed their family. “I mean the big shots up there on Capitol Hill, they are still eating steak and the people that are eating hot dogs every night are being punished. It’s horrible.”
Eventually news of who had been targeted filtered out, along with the text of letters that said: “Due to the severe financial crisis affecting our state, it has been determined that a layoff is required. Regrettably, I must advise you that effective Friday, Nov. 30, you will be placed on layoff status from your position.”
Others got variations on this letter telling them their jobs may or may not be in jeopardy: “As you know, a severe shortage of funds in the state budget has made it necessary to reduce the state workforce. The state has notified Council 94 that it is exploring the possibility of subcontracting or eliminating the West Warwick branch of the DMV ... If it occurs, the subcontracting or elimination of the West Warwick branch of the DMV may not result in your separation from state service, as your status, length of service and qualifications may enable you to obtain another position.”
Chuck Hollis, assistant administrator of the DMV, said the West Warwick branch was the only one recommended for closing because construction “cut the parking down to practically nothing.” Confirming the closure plan, Carcieri spokesman Jeff Neal cited other reasons: the West Warwick registry is in “poor physical condition” and is within minutes of the Registry Express office in the Rhode Island Mall, which has evening and weekend hours.
Union president Maureen Tripp noted that the mall registry is not currently staffed or equipped for new licenses or car registrations. There are currently seven employees at the West Warwick site, all of whom received letters telling them their jobs may be abolished.
Other letters that went out yesterday reflected Carcieri’s continued interest in “privatizing” dietary services at the state hospital, hiring a private Massachusetts company, Hurley of America Inc., to replace scores of housekeeping employees at Eleanor Slater Hospital and closing “Virks 3,” the last psychiatric unit in the Virks building on the hospital campus.
A letter from Ellen Nelson, director of the Department of Mental Health, Retardation and Hospitals, to Council 94 executive director Dennis Grilli mentions the potential elimination or subcontracting of “hospital tracheotomy functions.” Citing the “huge list” of CNAs getting the notices, Grilli said the drive “goes well beyond the original privatization attitude that they’ve had. Now they are digging deeper into direct patient care areas.”
Council 94 represents about 5,000 state workers. By the union’s count, 311 of the notices that went out yesterday were aimed at its members.
The letters reflect a meld of new and old Carcieri ideas.
For example, the governor proposed the privatization of housekeeping services at the state hospital complex last winter to save a suggested $13 million over the life of the five-year contract. He backed off in June after state lawmakers passed a law requiring the state to produce verifiable evidence of potential savings and proof that present state employees cannot perform the service just as efficiently. In late-August, Carcieri announced plans to push ahead regardless amid assertions — disputed by key lawmakers — that the new law didn’t apply. While Hurley has been awarded the temporary contract, at this point, Neal said, the state is still negotiating the exact terms.
In all, Nelson, of the MHRH, estimated her department alone accounted for “in excess of 250” of the notices that went out in recent days. About 67 were actual layoff notices, the others described by a staffer as “deferred potential displacements.”
For those facing actual layoff, union contracts trigger complicated “bumping” rules that allow targeted employees to displace less senior workers.
Council 94’s Downey was upset by the administration’s decision to send warning letters to hundreds of people — not targeted for immediate layoff — that their jobs may be eliminated in the future. When told of the plan the night before, Downey said he begged the governor and his staff not to. “There was no need. None,” he said. “It’s the worst I’ve seen him do to us. I mean, he’s done some pretty mean things. This is the worst thing I’ve seen done to workers in 27 years ... It truly is.”
In response, Neal said the governor “recognizes that this is a very difficult process” for the employees. “Nobody, including the governor, wanted to take this step. From the governor’s point of view, reducing the size of the state workforce in this fashion was the last, least-desirable option.”
But “with regard to the positions targeted for elimination before the end of the current fiscal year,” he said, Carcieri “believed that it was better to inform the affected employees now, rather than withhold that information from them. The governor felt it was important to give affected employees as much information as we can.”
Meanwhile, Soum, with her specialized skills, has little hope that “bumping” will save her job.
“Our governor, he’s doing this just before Thanksgiving. How’s my Christmas now? My husband got sick last year for Christmas,” she said. “I hope [the governor] will enjoy his Thanksgiving dinner and enjoys his Christmas, opening his gifts while my kids don’t have any.”
(projo.com)