DANNEMORA, N.Y. (WCAX) – A wildcat strike by New York state prison guards stretched into a third week Monday, prompting officials to start firing workers for failing to abide by a deal to end the illegal labor action.
“None of these actions we take lightly,” said Jackie Bray, the commissioner of the New York Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services.
New York state officials have now begun taking action against corrections officers who remain on the picket line, first terminating health insurance for employees and their families, and now jobs are in jeopardy.
“We have only at this point terminated a handful, less than 10 corrections officers,” Bray said.
State officials say the strike is illegal under state law. Workers remain off the job at 32 of the state’s 42 prisons.
Those outside the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora say they aren’t going. A corrections officer who spoke with WCAX News anonymously says they don’t feel like the state is listening.
“It doesn’t seem like they want to really work with us. They are not listening to what we are saying. None of us want to be out here,” the corrections officer said.
The main sticking point is that workers want a full repeal of the HALT Act that reduced the use of solitary confinement. Corrections officers say the law reduces accountability when inmates misbehave and makes everyone unsafe. They’ve also asked for safer staffing levels and less mandated overtime.
The agreement reached by the state and union last week addresses some of those things, however, some workers say it doesn’t do enough.
“Part of the resolution was telling us they are going to make us do two more overtime per week. So, that’s four per pay period, but if we do five, that’s an extra $100. It’s not about the money,” the anonymous corrections officer told us.
New York Corrections Commissioner Daniel Martuscello says repealing the HALT Act is up to lawmakers. An effort to do so has already failed along party lines.
“The Legislature can override an executive order, with 50% plus one. So, therefore, there really is no change we can make to the HALT Act other than go to the Legislature and make changes,” Martuscello said.
State employees in Dannemora say they are asking for the union’s support.
“Right now, we feel abandoned. What we need more than anything is the Union to come forward and sanction this strike,” the worker said.
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Last Thursday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a binding agreement between the state and officers’ union to end the picketing. Officers were required to return to work by Saturday to avoid being disciplined for striking.
The deal included ways to address staffing shortages and minimize mandatory 24-hour overtime shifts. It also offers a temporary bump in overtime pay, a potential change in pay scale, and the suspension of a prison reform law that strikers blamed for making prisons less safe.
The strike by prison guards violated a state law barring walkouts by most public employees. Hochul deployed the National Guard to some prisons to take the place of striking workers
Visiting is still suspended at all state prisons.
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