Strike has spread to 30 prisons in NY

Photo by Tom Rivers: These signs are displayed today on Gaines Basin Road across the Orleans Correctional Facility where more than 100 corrections officers from Orleans and Albion correctional facilities, as well as recent retirees, are gathered for a second day of a strike at the prisons.

A strike among corrections officers that started on Monday at Collins and Elmira prisons has now spread to 30 prisons, said the union representing the corrections officers.

The strike isn’t sanctioned by the New York State Correctional Officers & Police Benevolent Association. The Taylor Law doesn’t allow corrections officers or public employees to legally go on strike.

There are 42 prisons run by the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.

“Currently there are approximately 30 correctional facilities in which officers/sergeants are participating in either protesting current working conditions inside the prisons or refusing to enter for their scheduled shift,” said James Miller, spokesman for NYSCOPBA, the union for corrections officers. “There are several facilities that are not participating and are operating normally.”

Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday said she was preparing to mobilize the National Guard to help staff the prisons if the strike doesn’t end today. Miller said the National Guard is on standby but he is unaware if any Guard members have been deployed to a prison.

“The leadership of NYSCOPBA met with DOCCS officials and representatives of the Governor’s Office yesterday morning to discuss the well documented concerns of the members that has led to the current situation,” Miller said in a news release. “Negotiations with the State have continued throughout today between NYSCOPBA and the Governor’s Office towards a resolution.”