Correctional officers choose new union
Prison guards reject old unit
By JAMES MERRIWEATHER
Dover Bureau reporter
06/14/2002
The state's correctional officers have voted to affiliate with a new union after eight years with the Delaware Correctional Officers Association.
In balloting Wednesday, 596 officers voted to affiliate with the Correctional Officers Association of Delaware; 279 voted to retain DCOA, and 16 voted for "no representative."
The votes were counted Thursday at the Wilmington office of the state Public Employment Relations Board, which oversaw the election. Deborah L. Murray-Sheppard, principal assistant to the board, said parties have five days to raise objections.
"If no objections are filed within five days, the results stand unchallenged and we move ahead," Murray-Sheppard said.
The vote to decertify the Delaware Correctional Officers Association essentially ends an acrimonious feud between its executive board and officers who say that board members denied basic rights to union members. The allegations included a refusal to allow members to review audits of the union's finances.
DCOA's president, Robert Proctor of Wilmington's Gander Hill prison, said Thursday that 661 of 1,552 officers in the bargaining unit - about 43 percent - failed to cast ballots. He would not offer an opinion on whether a bigger turnout might have made for a closer outcome.
In February, DCOA members voted 405-19 to take on Teamsters Local 103 of Glen Burnie, Md., as the union's bargaining agent, which would have left the DCOA's executive board with only ceremonial duties. Proctor refused to sign the agreement, citing unresolved complaints filed by officers against the executive board.
Cpl. Allan Deal of Sussex Correctional Institution near Georgetown, vice president pro tem of COAD, said the Teamsters' agreement probably would be recommended to members of the new union.
Electing officers and ratifying a proposed constitution would be among the first orders of business, Deal said. He and William R. Gosnell of SCI, president pro tem of COAD, are leading the new union on a temporary basis.
Deal said a proposed schedule for the first membership meeting and bargaining sessions with the Department of Correction was being worked out.
"We will celebrate at some point," he said, "but, right now, we're working."
The starting salary for correctional officers is $23,833, the lowest in the region. Currently, only working conditions may be negotiated with prison officials.
Reach James Merriweather at 678-4273 or jmerriweather@delawareonline.com.
