Delaware correctional officers to vote on union certification

Delaware correctional officers to vote on union certification
By JAMES MERRIWEATHER
Dover Bureau reporter
05/20/2002

An election has been set for June 12 on a proposal to decertify the Delaware Correctional Officers Association as bargaining agent for 1,553 officers.
The vote comes amid a feud among the association's executive board and rank-and-file members, who voted 405-19 in February to take on a Teamsters local in Maryland as their bargaining agent.
The executive board has refused to relinquish its bargaining authority. A leader of the breakaway officers said widespread discontent with the board will be reflected in the decertification election.
"I'm confident that the vote will be for decertification because our members see what's going on," said William R. Gosnell, a correctional officer at Sussex Correctional Institution near Georgetown.
The starting salary for Delaware correctional officers is the lowest in the region. Officers complain about being forced to work unwanted overtime and have set their sights on full pensions after fewer than the current 30 years of service.
State prison officials said earlier this year that a shortage of correctional officers left some prison beds unoccupied.
Executive board President Robert Proctor, a correctional officer at Gander Hill prison in Wilmington, called for a vote against decertification, saying a favorable vote "would leave my members unprotected."
"Truthfully, I feel it shouldn't happen," he said.
Deborah L. Murray-Sheppard, principal assistant to the state Public Employment Relations Board, said voting would be conducted from 6:30 to 9:30 a.m. and 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. June 12 at the main prisons - Gander Hill in Wilmington, Delaware Correctional Center near Smyrna and Sussex Correctional Institute near Georgetown.
Voting machines provided by the state Department of Election will be used. The votes will be counted the day after the election.
Association members on Feb. 28 overwhelmingly agreed to pay $250,000 a year to Teamsters Local 103 of Glen Burnie, Md., to handle collective bargaining. But the executive board so far has declined to sign the two-year agreement and continues to collect dues through automatic deductions from the pay of rank-and-file members.
With decertification, the association would be replaced by a new organization, called the Correctional Officers Association of Delaware, but the Teamsters local would retain responsibility for bargaining over working conditions with the state Department of Correction.
Gosnell is president pro tem of the new organization and Cpl. Allan Deal is vice president pro tem. They were among leaders of the Teamsters movement, accusing the Correctional Officers Association executive board of refusing to disclose financial information.
Proctor filed charges last month with the union's judicial committee, accusing Gosnell, Deal and seven other correctional officers of actions detrimental to association, including organization of the proposed new union. He wants them kicked out of the association and fined $500 each.
"They're trying to have us kicked out of the union so we can't go to the meetings and ask questions," Deal said.
Proctor said Friday that no action had been taken on the charges. He would not comment further.
The Correctional Officers Association was organized in February 1994 after officers voted to leave the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Gosnell said the signatures of 632 officers were collected on behalf of the latest decertification move, more than the 30 percent of membership required by state law to force an election.
Reach James Merriweather at 678-4273 or jmerriweather@delawareonline.com.