By:Leslie Gonzalez
Correction officers still without contract despite recent 30-hour sick-out
Correction officers at the Nassau County jail are yet to receive a new contract, even several weeks after they called a 30-hour sickout and caused a lock-down at the East Meadow facility.
The sickout followed rejection 15-4 by the County Legislature of a contract proposal that the correction officers had called fair. Since then, county Executive Thomas Gulotta (R-North Merrick) and the Sheriffs Officers Association have returned to the bargaining table twice, but have failed to reach an agreement.
The correction officers' March sickout in front of the jail got heated, with protestors chanting, "No contract, no peace."
In an interview this week, Michael Adams, the officers association president, offered little hope for a quick contract settlement. "This can take anywhere from one day to one and a half years," said Adams. "At this time, we're still negotiating, but we are waiting to hear from his [the county executive's] office."
Almost 1,100 officers at the Nassau County Correctional Facility have worked without a contract since 1997, and have not received a pay raise since 1996.
"It's been a brutal time working without a contract where inmates throw feces, urine and spit at us all the time," said Robert, one of about 150 correction officers who live in East Meadow. "They get the newspapers and hear what's going on from relatives, so they're aware of the situation."
Adams counted five assaults on officers in the eight days before the sickout. Inmates who were aware of officers' contract woes took advantage of mounting tension, he said.
Nassau corrections officers are the lowest paid in the metropolitan area. The starting pay averages $9,000 less than Suffolk County's.
During last month's sick-out, union leaders cited unsafe working conditions, including exposure to communicable diseases
such as HIV, tuberculosis and hepatitis B. A Nassau guard's average life expectancy is 57 years.
Correction officers are demanding better wages. The top pay a guard can now receive is roughly $56,000 after 17 years on the job. The contract rejected by the legislature would have raised pay by 25.5-28.4 percent over seven years.
In that agreement, union concessions included an 18-month wage freeze, forfeiture of one holiday, two and a half additional work hours per week, and 16 hours of overtime in lieu of compensatory time.
"We had a sick-leave policy in favor of the county, a lag-pay system that defers pay by two weeks for interest benefits, and five additional days of training for new recruits at no cost to the county," said Adams.
County Exec. Gulotta said, "Mike [the union president] had indicated that it was as far as he could go, and I think that the
membership vote, which was not an overwhelming vote, reflected that the members of his union had agreed with him.
All nine Republican legislators and six Democrats, including Presiding Officer Judy Jacobs (D-Woodbury), rejected the proposed contract. Jacobs said there were too many unanswered questions in the contract.
"Causes of concern to us included a non-uniformed officer allowance of $1,200. Why? And the night differential pay asked for was simply prohibitive," the presiding officer said. "There were quite a few matters that were unclear."
Gulotta called the legislature's vote unwise.
"We negotiated in good faith a contract with [the sheriff's association] that would put in place savings estimated by public financial management to be in excess of $20 million for the taxpayers of Nassau County. The union was given assurances at various times, both by the majority and the minority, that this contract would have the support of the legislature."
The legislature's Minority Leader, Peter Schmitt (R-Massapequa), recently issued a finance report in response to a Nassau Interim Finance Authority briefing that establishes guidelines for labor contracts. The report, which was sent to NIFA Chairman Frank Zarb, included elimination of three paid holidays, an employee contribution toward health insurance and an end to accumulated vacation and sick time.
Democratic Legislators who voted for the most-recent contract proposal were: Lisanne Altmann (D-Great Neck), Joseph Scannell (D-Baldwin), Jeff Toback (D-East Rockaway) and Roger Corbin (D-Westbury).
"It's not like they're being overpaid. They're just now coming up to par, and after hearing their testimony regarding safety issues, I thought it was a fair deal," said Altmann. "But the Republicans have taken a firm position, and a lot of it
may be political."
"They are campaigning on the backs of our corrections officers," said Adams, who called Schmitt's NIFA report unfair and off base. "They [the legislators] blamed the county's finances on Gulotta, when they were, in fact, part of the problem. There is
an indifference towards these workers. Even if this contract was passed, we would have still been the lowest paid."
Bob Lazaro, the legislature's Republican minority, said, "No one should be surprised that this failed to pass the legislature. We support the idea of a raise, but the proposed contract would have placed a $54 million cost on the county. This was not an easy thing to do, but it just can't be that raise.
"We want to see something in the single digits. Adams has chosen to make it personal, but unfortunately, their suggestions were not affordable."
After three hours of debate, officers who attended the March 9 legislative meeting over this matter stormed out in disappointment and anger when their tentative contract was defeated.
The sickout began Tuesday morning, March 13, when about 47 out
of 101 employees needed for the midnight shift called in sick -- six times the number of guards who normally do so. The sheriff quickly contacted the county executive's office and ordered an emergency lockdown, requiring inmates to remain in their cells.
As the day progressed, 273 out of 300 guards called in sick for the 8 a.m. shift. Because replacements never showed, officers who began their shift Monday afternoon were not allowed to leave.
Adams said the sheriffs association did not organize or sanction the sickout. Still the union was served a restraining order, and officers were advised to return to work. About 185 exhausted officers who had to stay on the job since early Monday afternoon for continuous, multiple shifts finally headed home at 7 p.m. Tuesday, and the sickout ended midnight Wednesday.
Adams, a 19-year veteran in corrections, is urging county legislators to visit the county jail to see correction officers' working conditions. The lack of a contract has left many workers in low morale, he says.
"Considering the county executive's situation that his term
is about to end, I fear that renegotiations are in a stall," said Legis. Altmann. "We're in a black hole. It will take a miracle for them to get it now, and it's so frustrating."
