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McEntee: No Deal With CCA

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Recognizing that the professionalism of AFSCME’s COs would not be compatible with private prisons, AFSCME officials broke off discussions with Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) in order to go on the offensive against prison privatization.

AFSCME Pres. Gerald W. McEntee announced this development to a cheering delegation of over 400 corrections workers at AFSCME Corrections United’s third national Corrections Congress, held in Austin, Texas, Oct. 3-5. "We will fight privatization in Tennessee and across the country," McEntee said in his keynote address Oct. 4. "We’re going on the offensive."

AFSCME had exploratory discussions with CCA in the spring of 1997 at the invitation of the Tennessee AFL-CIO. Union leaders explored the possibility of establishing a national agreement with CCA, which would have obligated CCA to extend voluntary recognition to AFSCME locals and to engage in good-faith collective bargaining at privatized facilities. It also could have protected AFSCME COs at Tennessee’s Brushy Mountain Penitentiary, which is facing a privatization drive in the state legislature.

In his speech, McEntee laid out AFSCME’s plan of attack on private prisons to "expose privatization for the unprofessional rip-off that it is." Initiatives mentioned by McEntee included:

  • Having ACU members meet with Pres. Bill Clinton and Attorney General Janet Reno to educate them about conditions in state prisons.

  • Gaining access for ACU members to federal training resources and to federal training in countering gangs.

  • Pressing President Clinton to create a federal commission on prisons.

  • Working with entertainment industry unions to launch a public relations campaign targeting the movie and television industries, attacking the bad guy stereotype of COs.

McEntee praised the efforts of COs in helping to organize public employees in the state of Maryland. "You did it," he said, applauding AFSCME’s victory in winning the right to represent 30,000 state employees there — including 8,000 in corrections. "ACU did it."

Finally, he applauded the work that COs do on the job. "Look around this room. You represent thousands of workers who do one of the toughest, most dangerous jobs in the nation."