Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - As the ongoing corrections officers strike continues into its third week across New York, state officials continue to urge those protesting working conditions inside the correctional facilities back to work, or risk losing their jobs and health insurance.
In a press briefing on Monday, state officials confirmed that the termination process for corrections officers on strike has already begun.
"Yesterday, we began termination of corrections officers. Today, we will be terminating health insurance for corrections officers who have been AWOL (absent without official leave) and their dependents," said State Homeland Security and Emergency Services Commissioner Jackie Bray. "None of these actions we take lightly. We have tried at every turn to get people back to work without taking these actions."
Bray says only a handful of corrections officers - less than 10 - have been terminated to this point, but expect those numbers to continue to rise. Those who have been terminated, and will be terminated, are individuals who have been absent for 10 work days and didn't provide an excuse satisfactory to management, or explain their absence by the end of the 11th work day.
All absences due to the strike have been deemed unauthorized absences.
"We want to encourage the corrections officers and the sergeants who haven't come back yet to come back. We don't want to take these actions. We want to give you the opportunity to return," Bray said.
Bray adds that no corrections officers on strike have been arrested, though, there is still a possibility of seeing individuals being detained in the coming days.
"We have over 350 of the corrections officers named specifically in the civil action. The Attorney General's Office is at a hearing this morning in an effort to begin civil contempt proceedings for those named officers," Bray explained. "We would expect that to play out over the next several days before anyone was detained."
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Daniel Martuscello, commissioner for the State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS), says efforts to resolve the strike have been an ongoing process with the union representing the corrections officers, and even called for the help of mediation to try and get guards back to work at the facilities.
"One of the focuses was really to move away from having staff work 24-hour shifts, and provide a healthier and safer work environment. Some of the concerns that were raised by staff through the mediation process, while legitimate, fell outside of the mediation scope, because it impacted laws that we had no ability to change," said Martuscello during Monday's briefing.
After many days of mediation between the state and the New York State Correctional Officers and Benevolent Association (NYSCOPBA), the independent mediator issued the Consent Award, which was binding on both parties, but predicated on staff returning to duty so the agreement could move forward.
While the Consent Award was successful is bringing some of the workforce back to work, still a large number of corrections officers refuse to return to duty, thus continuing their protest of working conditions inside the prison, as well as parameters established inside the prisons under the HALT Act.
"Since the issuance of the award, we've had staff return to duty, and we've resulted in reducing the number of facilities that are currently participating in the strike from 38 to 32. Those facilities that are no longer on strike are Green Haven, Fishkill, Shawangunk, Hudson, Taconic and Sing Sing," Martuscello said. "However, a large number of staff across the state continue to remain on strike, with more staff returning to duty each and every day. But it's not allowing for us to implement the Consent Award and continue our ongoing dialog."
Like Bray, Martuscello is asking for striking corrections officers to return to work in order to further attempt to address ongoing issues inside the walls of state-run prisons across New York. This includes the safer working conditions, as well as addressing staffing issues at facilities statewide, as well as issues pertaining to the HALT Act.
"Correction officers have a difficult job, let alone being understaffed. I see firsthand the impact it's had on correction officers and their families, and I want to make sure that we continue to have this conversation, as they play a vital role in public safety to this state. In order to continue this dialog, though, we really need our staff to return to the workforce so we can operate at safe facilities and provide safety to the surrounding communities," Martuscello said.
"We will continue this dialog, and I know together, I am committed to making change to make our facilities safer and provide a work-life balance for the hard-working men and women that report to our facilities each and every day."
"We've got to do a lot of work in order to recruit more corrections officers. We're committed to doing that work," Bray added. "That work can't really begin, in earnest, until folks return to work and we end the strike."
To date, more than 7,000 National Guard members have been deployed to correctional facilities statewide, with servicemembers having been sent to all but one facility at the time of Gov. Kathy Hochul's Executive Order signed on Feb. 19.
Many of those National Guard members will remain on duty at facilities across New York until state officials see it fit that their service is no longer required with stabilizing the prison.
In addition, Bray says New York has spent approximately $25 million in response to the strike. She adds that if the strike was to continue, the state would estimate to be paying out $106 million per-month.