ACU Grows Where it’s Hot and Where it’s Cold
SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO
It was sweet vindication for the 6,400 corrections officers and other corrections workers in Puerto Rico who have been waiting to have a voice at work. Alianza Correccional Unida (ACU)/Servidores Públicos Unidos (SPU)/AFSCME Council 95 had won the election three years ago, by a 2-to-1 margin. But that election win was set aside by a very questionable decision of the Puerto Rico Public Employees Relations Board. A favorable court ruling finally paved the way for a new election last March. This time, the victory was overwhelming. By a more than 3-to-1 margin, COs chose as their union ACU/SPU. With 2,447 votes, ACU defeated the Federación de Oficiales de Custodia (FOC), a rival union that had delayed the election. FOC garnered only 692.
The ACU organizing committee prepared for the vote with aggressive workplace outreach, small group meetings between shifts and one-onone house visits. In the last 12 months, SPU also stepped up its demands for a firm election date. “We never slowed down,” says the committee’s Héctor Gutiérrez Romero. “We were more determined than ever to win.”
FIGHT TOGETHER. To underscore the International Union’s support for the campaign, ACU Chairperson Glenard S. Middleton went to Puerto Rico last December. Middleton, who is also an International vice president and executive director of Maryland Council 67, told the COs “to count on us to be part of this battle with you. Our union believes in the rights of corrections officers to a safe and protected workplace,decent pay and health benefits, and job security. We will fight together for these rights.
”With this victory, “we can now finally begin to bargain for a contract,” says ACU Local 3500 Pres. María Mauras Montañez. “It’s about time our COs get the recognition and respect we deserve.”
Within the last year, hundreds of COs in the parole, bail bonds and juvenile units have joined SPU. The council now represents 20,000 workers throughout the island.
BISMARCK, NORTH DAKOTA FIRST-EVER. In North Dakota, where there is no right to collective bargaining, about 90 COs from the state’s maximum and minimum prisons in Bismarck joined Council 59 — becoming the union’s first statewide correctional unit: N.D. Corrections United/AFSCME Local 2857. And the numbers continue to grow with additional sign-ups. Organizing continues at two other prisons — a mediumsecurity institution in Jamestown and a youth facility in Mandan.
Local president and CO Terry Moravec explained the workers’ reasons for joining AFSCME during a Feb. 7 press conference in Bismarck: “Our goal is an equal voice in decision-making on procedures and conditions of work. We want recognition for the value of our work; effective training to meet the special challenges of working in corrections; proper equipment for protection against inmate attacks; and facilities adequate to house the number of inmates assigned — with proper staffing levels.”
