Earlier this month, a dozen rank-and-file members along with Teamsters staff delivered a petition with nearly 1300 signatures to Secretary Strange demanding that the State take immediate action to improve staff safety at the DOC. 

After the petition delivery, members met with Secretary Strange and her leadership team for two hours. Our group shared harrowing stories with DOC management, outlining a number of serious concerns related to the health, safety, and well-being of corrections staff.

We addressed excessive mandatory overtime, the failure of DOC to follow its own policies and procedures, inadequate training, chronic staffing shortages, a lack of appropriate PPE, and a number of other issues.

At the meeting, Secretary Strange and her team pledged to work with our Union to fix these problems. Unfortunately, two weeks have passed since our meeting, and we have not received a formal response from the Department about how they intend to address our concerns.

Yesterday, we sent a strongly-worded letter to Secretary Strange reiterating our demands. You can read that letter here. 

If the Department continues to be unresponsive, we may need to take additional action. Please continue to monitor your email. We will keep you updated on whether the DOC chooses to take our demands seriously and commits to genuine reform or whether they continue to ignore your concerns, well-being, and safety.