West Burlington IA News-Sports-Opinion

Proud Wife

I applaud you and your support for your husband. It sounds as if your spouse takes pride in his work and acutely gets up of his duff and does some work.

It’s sad to say that there are many workers who sit in an office and do no more than they have to. I am sure that your husband can tell you who those correctional officers are by name. How many times has he witnessed staff abuse an inmate or break items which belong to inmates just for fun. Which staff state I get paid for what I might have to do and then do nothing to prevent problems. Staff who are crying because they think they are being picked on by other staff. Then an investigation has to tie up and waste time because they didn’t want to do a job. What about staff that slow walk to the time clock to get overtime, but yet will not work it when called. Waste in ISP I think so.

Now you have management who are just as bad. You have some who think they are gods and some of them hold that same value at home.

There are those who want to control every move that staff make and make staff feel small because they can. Some who do no more than they have to and push the blame to someone else when things go wrong. These are the same people who are currently trying to gain favor with the new warden. (Political butt kissing) All they can do is find fault with everyone else and yet most of them never worked as a correctional officer or walked in their shoes.

Then there are the bullies. There is staff on both sides which need to be cleaned out. The only problem with this you cannot complain locally or in Des Moines because it will come back to bite you.

The union states they have the governor in their pocket and they do and they are one of the bullies.

Then you have staff who are there to do a job that they were hired to do. They do an excellent job and carry the load for many staff. If you could rid the garbage out of the staff things would run smoother and you could get by with less staff. These are the true staff of ISP and get no recognition for what they do.

To answer your question: Are they over paid? Yes! The union continues to reach and receive dollars that they have not earned. The more your husband makes the more the union takes. They have no concern for your husband. If they did they would put up of their money to help protect staff and provide their own life insurance policies for members without cost.

When you have staff that work at ISP and make more than most police chiefs in small towns across Iowa this is a problem. Police officers have to maintain a higher standard of training and professionalism than a correctional officer yet who receives the higher pay.

-25+years

The Treasury Department failed to consider the economic fallout when it told General Motors and Chrysler to quickly shutter many dealerships as part of government-led bankruptcies, a federal watchdog found.

A report released Sunday by the special inspector general for the government's bailout program raised questions about whether the Obama administration's auto task force considered the job losses from the closings while pressuring the companies to reduce costs.

CLICK HERE FOR ARTICLE

Obama closed dealership for political reasons not economic reasons. Obama was quick to close dealerships owned by republicans. Five times as many republicans lost their dealerships, compared to those owned by democrats.

-Falcon

Falcon:

Statistics are not always 100% because there are always those that fall through the cracks but on average State of Iowa employees earn 45% more than do private sector employees when performing the same job. On the same token it is well publicized that Iowa is the number one state when it comes to government employees. Iowa has the largest spread between its private sector employees and government employees out of all 50 states.

No one indicated Proud’s husband did not earn his money or faced abuse while at work but I do believe he is well compensated based on his work hazards otherwise he wouldn’t have stayed at the prison. Many people have jobs they dislike but the money they earn is probably more than they could get doing something else and that keeps them on the job.

The average pay for a correctional officer in Ft. Madison is $61,000 now if Proud’s husband has a college degree and after 20 years is only earning $60k he probably should have moved on years ago because a person without a degree working in industry here in Burlington probably is not earning anywhere near $61k dollars per year. A production worker making antenna’s here in Burlington, without overtime would be lucky to earn $30k a year.

Hell, we have two clerks here in Burlington that work for the city or possibly the county that have a total combined income of about $140k per year not counting benefits. Is this government or private? Needless to say its government and I doubt a private executive secretary in Burlington makes $45k tops.

I bet there are plenty of people that would like the job Proud’s husband has and earn his average salary. Proud should check around and see what other people earn around town that is not a government employee. I can’t believe how anyone can live the good life in Burlington when Iowa is known as a low paying private sector state but on the same token the highest paid government workers reside in Iowa when compared to Iowa’s private sector.

One thing I forgot to mention is that usually the higher salaries involve more education, responsibility, accountability and possible risk. Maybe that’s why the average pay for a correctional officer is more than an antenna assembler or a housecleaning person at the hospital.

-Disgusted