Reps. Ted Strickland (D-OH), Bart Stupak (D-MI), Harold Ford (D-TN) and Lincoln Davis (D-TN) introduced a bill in honor of Officer Wayne Morgan, Treasurer of AFSCME Local 2173, who was gunned down while transporting prison inmate George Hyatte from the main courthouse in Kingston, Tennessee, back to the Brushy Mountain Correction Complex in Petros, Tennessee. This bill, the Wayne "Cotton" Morgan Bulletproof Vest Act, would amend the federal program that makes matching grants to states for the purchase of bulletproof vest for public safety officers, to eliminate the requirement for state matching funds. There would be no matching requirement to the extent that the grant is for the purchase of an armor vest for any officer who works in a high security risk area or for a correctional officer who transports prisoners as Officer Morgan did. Please ask your representative to cosponsor this important legislation. Send an email today!
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ASFCME CorrectionsCorrections Officers in Puerto Rico Overwhelmingly Choose SPUBy a more than 3-to-1 margin, corrections officers on this island chose Alianza Correccional Unida (ACU)/Servidores Públicos Unidos (SPU)/AFSCME Council 95 as their union. The long-awaited election, which was completed on March 14, resulted in 2,447 votes for SPU and only 692 for Federación de Oficiales de Custodias (FOC), a rival union comprised mostly of supervisory officers. With this victory, more than 6,400 corrections officers in all 46 corrections facilities now have a voice at work with AFSCME Corrections United (ACU). "This is even better than the election we won three years ago," says ACU Local 3500 President Maria Mauras during a celebration following the election triumph. "Corrections workers have always wanted to be part of ACU, and their strong desire to have a union kept our hopes alive." The Puerto Rico Public Employees Relations Board voided a 2002 election that SPU won by a 2-to-1 margin — based on an alleged incident in a single polling area. Instead of rescheduling a vote in the "contaminated" area only, the board ordered one for the entire island. An election rescheduled within six months was delayed even further when FOC dragged SPU into a court battle, challenging its right to organize public-sector workers. Although the courts eventually ruled in SPU's favor, paving the way for a new election, three years passed.  |