and bosses.
You have to be a doctor and a nurse. When these guys come to you with a medical problem, you have to help them. The basics you need are first aid training. You have to know when to go to the higher ups when Health Services doesn’t take care of the problem. You have to put yourself on the line at times in order to get these guys the care they need.
You have to know how to keep safe and clean up biohazards.
You have to know how to protect yourself and others by using your wits, speaking skills, skill with weapons and be able to handle physical confrontations.
You must be correct in your decisions or you will be sued. You will even be sued at times if you make the right decision.
You must be able to handle boredom one second and be able to respond to dangerous violent physical situations the next.
You have to be a janitor and a mechanic.
You have to deliver food to inmates and clean up after them.
You have to be a magician. One boss will tell you to do something his way and another boss will tell you to do it a different way. Other bosses may insist on other ways. You have to be a magician to pull it all off. I guess that would make you a juggler too.
Oh, yeah! I almost forgot. You also have to be a prison guard and maintain the security of the facility, the offenders, your fellow officers and yourself.
EMPLOYER OF CHOICE, REALLY
The state calls itself the “employer of choice;” employer of choice, really? I didn’t choose to work here. I was forced to work here. My age caused most employers to not even take a look at my credentials and abilities. The state wasn’t allowed to discriminate according to my age. The benefits package is used as the main incentive for people to apply. The pay is nothing fantastic. I started at $10.71 per hour in 2000. Could you have paid your bills with that? It took me 3 to 4 months of jumping through hoops to get the job. I know of others that took much longer.
The state doesn’t commit to your permanent employment for 10½ months after you start working, yet they want you to commit to them long before you are ever hired. They put you through an academy for 6 weeks. Next you are on probation for 6 months. Then they can extend your probation for another 3 months. During these 10 ½ months, they can let you go for no reason at all. If they just don’t like you, you’re gone.
INSULTING OFFER
The state says it bargains in good faith. Offering a quarter of one percent with decreased benefits doesn’t qualify as bargaining in good faith in my book. Would you be thrilled with an offer like this? Our governor at the time talked about offering us 3%. He said that is what was budgeted. If that is what was budgeted, why were we offered only a quarter of a percent? The 3% was offered after a vote was taken to reject their previous ridiculous offer. Had this been the first offer, I know of no one who would have rejected it. No one would have been happy with it, but there would not have been a strike. With our small raise and decreased benefits, we were making less after this contract than we were before, and that’s not even counting the 4.2% inflation rate for the previous year. This was in a year where our politicians chose to give a tax rebate to make like they were doing a good job and cared about us. This was at the same time that they were disrespecting and treating unfairly 28,000 of their employees.
The governor was saying the state couldn’t afford anything due to the economy. This didn’t hold water though as we were constantly hearing of other state departments getting raises that at least kept up with inflation. We were also hearing of the bosses getting huge raises.
| Government Raises: | 2001 | Next 4 Years |
| Governor | 7.5% | 16.0% |
| Lt. Governor | 7.5% | 34.7% |
| Attorney General | 17.0% | 37.6% |
| Auditor | 34.0% | 56.6% |
| Secretary of State | 27.0% | 51.3% |
| Judges & Justices | 6.6% | 26.4% |
The governor said that we were not handcuffed to our jobs and that we could feel free to find new ones if we thought the state was unfair. The governor got 7½% in 2001 and would get another 16% over the next 4 years. He made much more than we did already, so his 7½% was a huge raise.
The county correction officers made more than us and their step raises went up quicker. Their starting pay was more and they maximized their step raises in just 5 years instead of 14 years like us. They also got 10, 15 & 20 year incentives.
WHAT OFFICERS BITCH ABOUT
The system is top heavy with big shots making big bucks.
We have to deal with a reactive administration instead of a proactive one.
We have major danger to contracting diseases. If an inmate bites us or spits in our face, we do not have the right to know whether or not they have a communicable disease like HIV or Hepatitis C or anything else. The inmate’s right to privacy supersedes our right to preserve our health.
Inmates are treated better than officers.
We get no respect for being in law enforcement. Few people are willing to enter such a dangerous and negative workplace as we do.
Take a look at some of the pictures of assaulted officers and then tell me we are not worthy of a fair wage.
SENIORITY PROBLEM
These next problems are the unions fault and the employees fault.
We have a seniority system that gives the highest seniority officers 100% of whatever days off they want before anyone else can pick anything.
You need high seniority in order to get an entire weeks’ vacation.
You need high seniority in order to get a weekend off.
Sick time is high because of not having enough seniority to use accrued vacation time to take a vacation or get a weekend off once in a while.
We are unable to change this because the higher seniority people are always able to prevent it from being changed to even a half way fair system and one that might be able to keep some of the better employees hanging around.
STRIKE
When the state offered three percent, it was perceived as more of an insult than an offer. The union recommended a strike. They said it was a bad and unacceptable offer.
As corrections officers we are considered essential services, so we weren’t
