AFSCME Corrections United Holds Second Congress
Niagara Falls, New York
"We could be the strongest political force in the U.S.,” AFSCME Pres. Gerald W. McEntee told some 550 delegates to the AFSCME Corrections United (ACU) second congress, held here in early November. McEntee was introduced by AFSCME International Vice Pres. Steve Culen of Illinois.
McEntee spoke of the sleeping giant of labor and what that wakening giant could mean to American workers, now that there is new leadership in the AFL-CIO.
Corrections work, being among the most dangerous and stressful jobs in the nation’s workforce, would benefit from change inside and outside of organized labor, he said.
In this time of “downsizing” (a euphemism for getting rid of workers) in both private industry and in government, those making the decisions are ignoring the dangers of understaffing and overcrowding in the nation’s prisons, the AFSCME president told the delegates, in a speech that was frequently interrupted by cheers and applause.
"Politicians,” he asserted, “want to lock them [prisoners] up and throw away the key, but they forget that the key is hanging on your belt.” While the Congress and state legislatures pass stronger laws with stricter sentencing guidelines, they are failing to expand the prison space to accommodate the increase in inmate populations, and they continue to look for ways to reduce staff levels.
One way they have found to deal with increasing inmate numbers is to double-cell and double-bunk, putting two in a cell designed for one. “That,” said McEntee, “leaves very little breathing room for people who will be in that cell for many hours every day...double-celling is a recipe for disaster, a clear danger to our members.
"And, now that they are in power, they have put out a welcome mat for privatizers, for outfits like Wackenhut and the Corrections Corporation of America,” McEntee continued, noting that the private prison firms are “camping in legislatures all over the country.”
How such companies generate their profits is simple to understand, he added: “When they take over, they fire people. They cut staff way down, and then they hire anybody who walks in off the street and is willing to work for not much more than the minimum, few if any benefits, and less training than you get as a Cub Scout.”
Exec. Director Henry Bayer of AFSCME Council 31 in Illinois and Ronald Alexander, president of Ohio Civil Service Employees Association, AFSCME Local 11, attended the congress. They are both International vice presidents.
AFSCME Council 82 had a mock cell designed to show the public in cities in New York the potential danger of double celling, when two inmates are put in a cell only 60 square feet, or smaller.
A variety of well-attended workshops were conducted by experts from around the country on such subjects as: Use of Force; Women in Corrections: Challenges and Opportunities; Stress Survival for Correctional Officers; Prison Privatization; Infectious Diseases; Violent Assaults in the Workplace; Building Community Partnerships; Preservation of a Crime Scene; Effective Union Leadership; and two workshops on Gangs in Prison—one about the Midwest and West Coast and one about East Coast gangs.
Colors were presented in the morning of the first day of the congress by the color guard from New York’s Greenhaven Correctional Facility, Local 152, and removed at the close by the honor guard from Attica, New York, Correctional Facility, Local 1040.
