ALBANY — Correction officers at multiple state prisons continued striking Sunday, violating a deadline they were given to return to work and end a walkout that has crippled New York’s correctional system since Feb. 17.
Although officers at some prisons returned to work, many others, including at maximum-security Attica Correctional Facility in Wyoming County and Clinton Correctional Facility in Clinton County, remained on picket lines. Over the weekend, the corrections department notified the state comptroller’s office to stop paying employees for what was being labeled “unauthorized time off.”
Corrections Commissioner Daniel F. Martuscello III, who visited multiple prisons on Saturday to speak with returning workers and those on strike, issued a statement Sunday afternoon warning those who remain out that their health insurance will be cancelled on Monday.
“My message to you is this is the final push,” he said. “Tomorrow, March 3, anyone who remains on strike will have their’s and their dependent’s health care removed retroactive to the first day they were AWOL, and you will not be eligible for COBRA.” (COBRA is a law that allows certain employees to continue their health benefits after an adverse employment event.)
“I want you to come back to work today,” Martuscello added. “If you missed your shift, you should still report, and know that we will continue to have open dialogue on making facilities safer places to work.”
The governor’s Office of Employee Relations also removed the union leave status of a vice president for the New York State Correctional Officers & Police Benevolent Association and he was ordered to report for duty at Orleans Correctional Facility. The vice president, Kenny Gold, represented the western region of New York, where many correction officers have remained on strike.
The Times Union reported Friday that a tentative agreement to end the unsanctioned state prison strike was unraveling as thousands of correction officers were urged by many of their colleagues to reject an offer they had received from a mediator who met this week with their union’s leaders and representatives of Gov. Kathy Hochul.
In a statement on Saturday, the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision cast the deadline as “a critical next step towards resolution and moving towards constructive long-term solutions.”
“In the event that correction officers continue the illegal strike in opposition to the mediators award, the judge’s temporary restraining order remains in effect and they may be held in contempt of court,” the statement added. “Failure to return to duty will result in additional legal and administrative actions, including the immediate loss of insurance coverage, civil penalties for violating the Taylor Law, potential arrest and job termination.”
The labor unrest is continuing as Michael H. Sussman, a civil rights attorney in Orange County, has sought to intervene on behalf of a group of rogue correction officers were trying to break away from their union in the mediation and be represented by their own attorney.
Source: timesunion.com
