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New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced an agreement late Thursday to end a wildcat strike that has roiled the state’s prison system for more than a week.
Hochul said the state and the union for striking correctional workers agreed to binding terms after four days of mediation talks.
The workers must return to work by Saturday to avoid being disciplined for striking, mediator Martin Scheinman in a seven-page memo detailing the agreement, known as a binding consent award.
The deal includes changes to address staffing shortages and provisions to minimize mandatory 24-hour overtime shifts.
Hochul said the mediated settlement addresses many of the workers’ concerns, puts the state prison system on the path to safe operations and prevents future unsanctioned work stoppages.
“My top priority is the safety of all New Yorkers, and for the past 11 days, I have deployed every possible State resource to protect the well-being of correction officers, the incarcerated population and local communities across New York,” Hochul said in a statement.
The union, the New York State Correctional Officers & Police Benevolent Association, Inc., did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
Strikers won several key concessions, including a temporary bump in overtime pay, a potential change in pay scale and the suspension of a prison reform law they blamed for making prisons less safe.
For the next month, under the agreement, overtime will be paid at a rate of 2½ times instead of the usual 1½ times regular pay. The state also agreed that within the next four months it will finish its analysis of a union request to bump the salary grade for officers and sergeants.
The reform law, which limits the use of solitary confinement, will remain suspended for 90 days while the state evaluates if reinstating it will “create an unreasonable risk” to staff and inmate safety.
The state and union also agreed to form a committee to study staffing and operational inefficiencies at each facility in an effort to relieve strain on existing staff.
Corrections officers began walking out Feb. 17 to protest working conditions. Hochul deployed the National Guard to some prisons to take the place of striking workers. The job action violated a state law barring strikes by most public employees. Several inmates have died during the strike.
Scheinman, a seasoned mediator who serves as the permanent arbitrator for Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League and their unions, said the sides demonstrated “good faith and enormous commitment to finding workable solutions for the workforce.”
“What has become clear during the mediation is the relationship between the parties and the workforce is strained,” Scheinman wrote in a memo explaining the agreement. “No single issue, law, or policy entirely explains the current situation. It is obvious this erosion did not happen all at once.”
The National Guard will draw down from state prisons as correctional officers return to work. In the agreement, National Guard members who remain in place will be used to prevent prison workers from being mandated to work a 24-hour overtime shift.
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