This is a petetion to start a bill to ammend the Illinois  5 ILCS 315 Public Labor Relations Act to include 9-1-1 Dispatchers. Since this act became law in 1983 a lot of things have changed in the career filed of 9-1-1 Dispatchers. Dispatchers now need to be certified on a state level for Emergency Medical Dispatch. There has been extensive modifications to the amount of training that goes into a 9-1-1 Dispatcher. The career has advanced to the point that you can no longer just replace a dispatcher with a police officer or fire fighter off the street. Since 9-1-1 Dispatchers have become such a crucial, and sometimes life saving, link between the public that they service and the Police, Fire, and EMS departments they dispatch for, and they are not allowed to strike, they should be concidered Essential Service Employees.