Speaking Freely & Organizing
Nevada's correctional officers gained that right in a fight to put together a work-rule campaign with arms, legs and a backbone.
By Susan Ellen Holleran
CARSON CITY, NEVADA
Craig Porhola has been a correctional officer for 22 years — and a member of the State of Nevada Employees Association/AFSCME Local 4041. But he had not been active in SNEA until two issues in his working life made him an activist: "seeing how management treats officers — like inmates"; and the day-to-day threats to CO safety and security. Porhola never imagined that a basic constitutional right — free speech — would come to his and his co-workers' aid.
Two years ago, SNEA was conducting an internal organizing drive — called The New Vision — among the 1,600 COs in Nevada's Department of Corrections. Although state employees do not have collective bargaining rights, union leaders believed the workers could accomplish much if they banded together. About 25 COs held a Corrections Summit at Tonopah. The most important issue? The right to bid on shifts and posts by seniority. At the time, the department director was recommending rotating shifts, which are bad for workers' health as well as their family and personal lives.
The COs decided to organize workers around the shift-bid issue. Although many believed that their goal was impossible to attain, they were determined to give it a try.
SIGN ON THE LINE. Across the state, prison employees signed petitions demanding the shift bid. SNEA saw it as a quality-of-life issue and reached out to members and non-members alike. As each prison reached the 70-percent "yes" mark, the union leaders requested a meeting — after work — with the warden.
Ralph Papp had been a CO at the Nevada State Prison (NSP) for 16 years. He was impressed with The New Vision activities and joined AFSCME. Papp says the NSP warden has been "really cool. He's tried to work with us."
COs at other facilities were not so fortunate. According to Porhola, who works at High Desert State Prison, "Management went after the people who were speaking out — to silence them. It was retaliation after retaliation." At High Desert, the warden alleged that SNEA activists were waging a war of terror against management. Nine COs, including Porhola, were placed on administrative leave. He had to pull his daughter out of college as SNEA worked for their reinstatement. "Management did force some workers to retire, but I was determined to stay and fight for real prison reform," says Porhola, who is now back at work and president of his SNEA chapter.
As workers like Porhola faced retaliation, SNEA kept up the pressure — picketing the facilities, rallying in the state capital and lobbying legislators. Several newspapers picked up the story and let the public know what was going on in the correctional system.
BAD OLD DAYS. For the first time in her 15 years at Ely State Prison, Senior CO Joni Drahos was also taking a really active role. "It was the more senior workers who got involved early," she says. They socialize on a regular basis and have forged solid relationships with each other over the years.
Management was not pleased that the workers were getting together. "They booted the SNEA members off the property," Drahos recalls. "We could no longer talk to folks in the parking lot. But my committee was awesome. We went to the top of the hill and pulled off to the side of the road with our banners and flags. Our co-workers stopped to take our fliers." In one day they got 70 signatures on the shift-bid petitions.
To punish Drahos for her involvement, the prison took away her training assignments. Previously, "I got to meet all the new hires — I'm a people person," she says. One day, she received a letter saying that her services as an instructor were no longer needed. In other prisons, trumped-up charges were leveled at union leaders. The department and state attorney general's office told SNEA, "You aren't a union. Quit acting like one."
"I read about stuff like this happening in the 1920s and '30s, but this is now, and we have rights — state rights, federal rights, constitutional rights," says Drahos. Her reaction: "They can't do this to us just because we stood up and spoke out."
FREE SPEECH. So SNEA took the issue to court. They sued the state for violating employees' First Amendment rights to free speech.
The lawyers defending the state's anti-union position were very sure of themselves and their case as they entered the courtroom. They relied on the U.S. Constitution's 11th Amendment, which gives states sovereign immunity. After a conference with Judge Valerie Cooke in her chambers, however, they returned to the courtroom with a different attitude — ready to settle.
As part of the settlement agreement, monthly meet-and-confer sessions will be held at each correctional facility and quarterly meetings at the state level. At the monthly sessions, the workers focus on one local concern and one that is statewide in scope. Issues that cannot be resolved at that level are brought to the quar-terly assemblies.
The recognition that they do have the right to speak out on their concerns has given the COs more confidence. Now they also have a vehicle to provide input and discuss problems — building a union. SNEA's success also brightens the prospect for bringing some 16,000 state employees — who don't currently have collective bargaining rights — a voice on the job.
"There's better communication with management — more respect," says Porhola. "We're moving ahead. It's going to take some sacrifice and some courage."
