Today’s video post from newly elected VSEA President Aimee Towne is the latest video update she’s sharing with the membership.
Towne talks today about an important Legislative Committee survey that’s coming soon, two openings on the VSEA Board of Trustees, how members can participate in Board meetings, and the importance of getting involved with the VSEA Council.
Photos of the PPE VSEA Corrections members use every day.
Last week, VSEA Corrections Unit members launched a campaign to appeal weekly to the State to reinstate the hazard pay the workers had been receiving for COVID-related duties. The Governor was mailed a large batch of employees’ written, firsthand accounts of what it’s like to work in a Vermont prison during the pandemic; each reminding him how the COVID threat has not ended and asking why their hazard pay did.
Each week, VSEA will continue to share some of the testimonials that best illustrate the organic themes that came up most often in member submissions. This week, Corrections Unit members mailed another powerful batch of workers’ firsthand accounts to the Governor, educating him about how a lack of hazard pay during this pandemic–along with a host of other experiences VSEA members have dealt with throughout this crisis–is destroying staff morale at correctional facilities statewide.
Example:
“I have been at my facility for 13 years now, and I have NEVER seen the staff morale so low. Staff are struggling with the added stress that COVID brings to the table, staff are becoming demoralized at an alarming rate, which leads to depression, increased alcohol consumption as well as serious suicidal ideations.”
VSEA leadership is always looking for ways to provide members with benefits that go above and beyond our union’s primary purpose of contract negotiation and enforcement.
The VSEA Supplemental Dental Program gives VSEA members’ access to an enhanced dental plan not available anywhere else in the country. Please know that this program is only available to VSEA members. VSEA is pleased to announce that by popular demand we have added a second open enrollment period. This program is designed to enhance your State-administered dental insurance benefit.
VSEA is pleased to announce that by popular demand we have added a second open enrollment period. This program is designed to enhance your State-administered dental insurance benefit.
“Daily we are asked to do more with less. Daily we are asked to risk our own life, safety, and mental health to supervise a population that does not want us here. Add COVID, and the task is now doubled if not tripled in demand for every officer here. Yet there are now fewer of us staffing the same facilities than before.”
This is just one of the hundreds of powerful responses VSEA Corrections Officers (COs) submitted to their union when asked to provide an honest account of what it’s been like working in a Vermont prison during the pandemic and also how they feel about the Scott Administration ending their “hazard pay.”
On November 2, VSEA’s Corrections Unit launched a campaign to get hazard pay reinstated, using COs’ firsthand written accounts to help them argue that the additional pay for COs and other essential workers should never have ended.
The large number of COs who responded to VSEA’s request means VSEA will be able to send a new and different packet of testimonials to Governor Scott (Or to whoever is elected Vermont’s next Governor) every week for the next five weeks. On average, VSEA estimates that the Governor will be reading ten, powerful testimonials every day!
VSEA invites members and retirees to help VSEA’s COs get their hazard pay reinstated by sharing these worker stories with your colleagues, family, friends, and neighbors. You can also call the Governor’s Office and lobby our local lawmakers to step up.
Members are urged to check VSEA.org weekly to view the latest batch of VSEA Corrections Unit members’ testimonials being sent to the Governor and to receive campaign updates. Thanks!
