                    I. BACKGROUND

                         A. The Communications Service Bureau

              Throughout the state, the Illinois State Police has 19 call centers, which

receive emergency telephone calls from the public and provide dispatching services for

troopers. The call centers are part of the Communications Service Bureau of the

Division of Administration. At the helm of the bureau is the bureau chief, and beneath

the bureau chief are two assistant bureau chiefs. The State of Illinois is divided into four

regions,in the northern part of the

state, and Bonnie C. Lane, who was responsible for Regions III and IV in the southern

part of the state, and two telecommunications supervisors, Chrystal J. Mitchell from

District 19 in Carmi and Sherri J. Mahon from District 12 in Effingham. The union

called two telecommunications supervisors, Tracy A. Vail from District 14 in Macomb

and Karen M. Stec from the Chicago district.

              Lane testified that a telecommunications supervisor was "the managerial

presence, the supervisory presence[,] for the operations of [the call] center [24 hours a

day and 7 days a week]." Before becoming an assistant bureau chief, Lane was a regional

manager. During her 2 1/2-year stint as a regional manager, she visited each call center

in