Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration is bypassing the correction officers union, offering illegally striking guards at over 30 New York prisons another deal if they return to work Friday.
The state proposed a new deal — which is opposed by the union— in a desperate attempt to get the prisons fully staffed after the guards walked off the job on Feb. 17 over unsafe working conditions.
Department of Corrections and Community Supervision Commissioner Daniel Martuscello told reporters Thursday the new terms would establish a committee “focused on safety” that would address concerns about the HALT law governing solitary confinement in prisons. Correction officers have argued the law limits their ability to control unruly inmates and safely do their job.
The potential agreement would also include many of the same provisions included in the first deal offered by the state and accepted by the union last week, including:
- A 90-day suspension of some aspects of the solitary confinement law
- 2.5 times overtime pay for 30 days after officers return to work
- Adjourning legal proceedings against participants in the illegal strike
- Reimplementation of health insurance for those who’d been terminated
- No discipline for striking workers
Striking workers have demanded changes to the state’s solitary confinement laws. Getty Images“They deserve it. We’ve heard them. We need them. They play an important role in public safety,” Martuscello said of the correction workers.
The proposal is being offered to the guards without the support of the leadership of the correction union, the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association or NYSCOPBA.
Martuscello said the union’s head, Chris Summers, gave him a verbal agreement that he would sign a deal, but that never happened.
“Unfortunately, this evening, President Summers and his executive board have refused to sign the Memorandum of Understanding, once again failing his members,” he said.
The Watertown Daily Times first reported a letter shared by the union’s executive board to NYSCOPBA members asking them to side with them in rejecting the deal.
The executive board alleges that Hochul and DOCCS sprung the deal on them at the last minute in order to pin the threat of not returning to work Friday morning on the union.
“They refused and gave us an ultimatum, which is why we had no choice but to decline to sign the agreement in its current form,” the board writes in the letter.
The Albany Times Union reported earlier in the day that the union’s brass was not on board with the emerging deal.
The union confirmed as much in a later statement without details.
“This agreement does not represent the best interests of our membership,” NYSCOPBA spokesperson James Miller wrote in a statement to reporters earlier Thursday.
“At this time, NYSCOPBA will not be signing this agreement,” Miller added.
The rift between the union’s leadership and its members has been on full display for weeks, with several officers telling The Post they don’t trust their bargaining unit to represent them.
The union’s executive vice president Matt Keough said as much Wednesday, Spectrum News reported.
The wildcat strike entered its 18th day on Thursday. Getty Images“Our union membership has no faith in us right now,” Keough said.
Despite the lack of a legally binding agreement, Martuscello is offering a verbal commitment of his own.
“These terms outlined, that my employees asked for, will be upheld and we will follow this to the letter for those individuals that return to duty tomorrow,” he said.
The wildcat strike, now on its 18th day, has thrown the state prison system into chaos and forced the Hochul administation to call in thousands of National Guard troops to man the detention faciltities.
