EDITOR’S NOTE: The union representing striking New York State corrections officers and the Department of Corrections and Community Safety agreed to terms to end the strike on Friday. Many COs, including those at Collins Correctional Facility near Gowanda, defied demands that they return to work and remained on the pocket line. They face dismissal as early as Monday.
By RICK MILLER
Olean Star
LITTLE VALLEY — Cattaraugus County lawmaker stood in support this week of striking state corrections officers outside Collins Correctional Facility in Gowanda.
Many of the corrections officers have not been to work in almost two weeks. Their strike has spread to more than 30 prisons across the state and resulted in Collins prisoners being transported to other prisons temporarily.
In two resolutions passed on Wednesday, the county legislature blasted state officials for “”crisis level” staffing “which played a role in the recent inmate uprising” on Feb. 12, and supported corrections officers “over unsafe working conditions and inadequate staffing.”
Legislature Chairman Andrew Burr of Gowanda and Legislator Ginger Schroder of Farmersville sponsored the resolution condemning the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision for “brutally low staffing levels.” Other legislators agreed to be cosponsors.
Burr, who represents the northwest section of the county that is home to many corrections officers, said he wanted to “go on record as “stridently opposing the current situation of the safety of our friends and fellow residents.”
Legislator Donald Benson of Allegany joined Burr and Schroder in cosponsoring the resolution in support of the corrections officers, who faces fines, loss of health insurance and their jobs over their strike.
The resolution states: “corrections officers who have taken to the picket lines are demanding higher staffing levels, mandated body scans of visitors, scans of incoming mail to inmates, monetary bonuses for new employees, no overtime mandates over 16 hours, and the immediate repeal of the HALT Act” which limits the use of solitary confinement in prisons.
Burr said the strike is “a direct result of New York’s again, disaster policy on criminals first, employee safety, second.
Schroder said, “Being a labor attorney, I can tell you, it takes a lot for employees to engage in a labor action against their employer.” Their economic security, family, careers and pensions “are put at risk. So for them to do this means things are really bad.” The state, she added, is retaliating by threatening to close five prisons across the state.
County legislators were scheduled to meet Wednesday in the ground floor Emergency Services room while the legislative chambers undergo renovations including new carpet.
However, the meeting was hastily moved to the former Little Valley school after high radon levels were detected in the Emergency Services. Legislators met in a sheriff’s office training room on the second floor of the former school on Rock City Street.
In another resolution that also received immediate consideration, legislators agreed to offer villages a $25,000 match toward the cost of a dissolution study.
The resolution, cosponsored by Burr, Frank Higgins of Olean, Norman Marsy of Little Valley and Jeffrey Stoltenberg of South Dayton, would create a Municipal Match Grant Program to allow villages to apply for up to $25,000 of the match requirement for a dissolution study through the state Division of Local Government Services.
Legislators also voted unanimously to oppose the National Grid rate hike request that would increase average homeowner electric bills by $18.92 a month or 15%, and natural gas costs by $18.34 a month, or 20%.
Another resolution approved for immediate consideration authorized the Rural Revitalization Corporation to administer a $500,000 Community Development Block Grant for water well and septic and lateral repairs or replacement.
The health department will retain $31,500 of the grant for administration.
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All Rights Reserved. Star News LLC. Eric M. Firkel.
