Corrections Members Land Pay Raises
AFSCME corrections members in four Midwestern states states are enjoying the benefits of solid union representation, including 14 percent pay raises.
Workers in Ohio, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois negotiated contracts this year that provide them with better-than-average wages and benefits during a time when state budgets are allegedly tight. Some of the negotiations were tough, but the members stood firm in their demands.
Employees in Minnesota and Wisconsin are operating under two-year contracts that expire in the summer of 2001. Workers in Ohio are under a three-year contract that runs through 2003, while those in Illinois negotiated a four-year deal through 2003.
In Wisconsin, the average pay raise over the two years of the contract is an impressive 14 percent for COs in Officer I, II and III classifications. “We’re trying to be competitive with the counties and surrounding states, so we had to bring salaries up,” says Marty Beil, executive director of Council 24. “This brings them into the market. Some counties in Wisconsin pay their people who work in county jails more than the state pays the correctional officers.”
The pay improvement came on the heels of the ACU conference in Madison, Wis., in the summer of 1999. It was there that Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson vowed to keep private prisons out of the state and pay COs a fair wage. Council 24 also had the support of Jon Litscher, the secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Corrections.
“They put their money where their mouth was,” says Beil. “Clearly the state listened to our COs as they told legislators and policy makers about the need to improve COs’ base salary.”
In addition to the pay increase, COs now have a system allowing them to advance to Officer II from Officer I without a lot of red tape. Beil says the new agreement basically states that “if you’re an Officer I and you put in your time and get a satisfactory evaluation, you automatically move to Officer II.”
Corrections members from Illinois Council 31 joined with other union members and hammered out a favorable four-year deal under the state’s master contract. Benefits include pay raises totaling at least 18 percent, changes in the pension plan that will add hundreds more dollars to employees’ monthly benefit, and health insurance premiums limited to the percentage of total income members currently pay.
Hank Scheff, director of research and employee benefits for Council 31, says the pension plan “was the major objective of the corrections locals when they went into bargaining.”
Under a pension-law provision called the alternative formula, which is specific to corrections members, Council 31 was able to negotiate a substantial increase in pension payments. For example, COs who retired at age 55 or more with 30 years of service, had a pension equivalent to 57 percent of their final average salaries. Under the plan created through the alternative formula, those same COs will now have a pension that equals 75 percent of their final average salaries. The plan, which goes into effect Jan. 1, 2001, covers corrections members with 20 or more years of service.
“The 30-year CO is going to see his pension go up almost $6,800 a year under the formula increase,” says Scheff.
COs under the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association (OCSEA)/ AFSCME Local 11 now have a contract that allows them to pick their own posts, according to seniority. “Prior to this contract it had been a pilot project, which meant that management could have come in at any time and said, ‘We don’t want to be a part of this anymore,’ costing the COs their right to bid on their jobs,” says George Yerkes, OCSEA staff representative.
The “pick-a-post” agreement also calls for management to identify the permanent posts at all institutions, and ensure that they are filled every day -- with overtime, if necessary.
The three-year deal includes pay raises of 3, 3.5 and 4 percent, respectively. OCSEA negotiators also got the state to pay the cost of a commercial driver’s license test. “Prior to this contract, sometimes management would pay for the cost of a test, sometimes they wouldn’t,” says Yerkes.
John Westmoreland, Council 6 staff representative, says that a key concern for members in Minnesota was retaining insurance benefits. “There have been huge cost increases in health care, and one of the bigger issues was office-visit co-payments,” he says. “AFSCME Council 6 is probably one of the few unions left in the state where the benefits still include no co-pays. We held out on that, and we won.”
The council also worked out a deal that caps the annual maximum amount of out-of-pocket expenses for co-payments on prescription drugs. The annual cap is $200 per person and $400 per family.
For the first time, negotiators for corrections staff members used interest- based bargaining during contract talks. Westmoreland describes the process as both parties laying issues on the table and, through Minnesota’s Bureau of Mediation services, agreeing to identify and draft solutions for specific articles in a contract. Through this process, members were able to improve the language concerning shift exchange, overtime distribution and holidays.
