Lopsided vote a slap at board

By JAMES MERRIWEATHER
Dover Bureau reporter
02/20/2002

Members of the Delaware Correctional Officers Association voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to take on a Teamsters local as their bargaining agent.

At the afternoon meeting of the association in Dover, the vote was 199-8, supporters said. At the night meeting, the vote was 206-11.

The votes leave the association's board with ceremonial duties only.

Sgt. Robert Proctor, president of the association's executive board, said he was surprised by the lopsided vote, which reverses the board's Feb. 4 rejection of the proposal.

"I'm a correctional officer, too, so I understand their cries," said Proctor, who is assigned to Gander Hill prison in Wilmington.

At the afternoon meeting at the Modern Maturity Center, several executive board members and officers walked out.

"Take the emotion out now," Thomas H. Ridgley, president of Teamsters Local 103 of Glen Burnie, Md., told officers who left.

The Teamsters movement began about a month ago among officers who said the executive board withheld basic rights. A demand to see the association's most recent audit had not been honored.

Association treasurer Jon Mears said Tuesday an audit was in process and would be made available to members when completed.

Under the joint agreement, Local 103 will assume most union functions now performed by the executive board - including bargaining, administration, lobbying and legal work.

Under Delaware law, unions representing public employees may negotiate working conditions only. Pay issues are up to the General Assembly.

Reach James Merriweather at 678-4273 or jmerriweather@delawareonline.com.