Last week, VSEA Corrections Unit members sent a fourth batch of personal worker appeals to the Governor; a continuation of a weeks-long VSEA Corrections Unit members’ campaign for hazard pay. Each week’s batch of campaign testimonials focuses on a different organic theme, derived from hundreds of member testimonials submitted to VSEA to educate the Scott Administration on how its decision to end hazard pay is causing harm to Corrections employees.
This week’s fifth batch of testimonials is to personally let the Governor know how far hazard pay could go to help lessen the employee burnout being caused by the additional job stress created by the COVID pandemic. This week’s testimonials reinforce why these workers deserve hazard pay for their stress and sacrifice.
Example:
“Everyone is burned out, employees and inmates alike, and there’s no end in sight to the extra duties and restrictions. Staffing is critically short, and the facility is barely running in a safe manner. Exhausted staff, unsafe working conditions and staff quitting in droves. Morale is in the basement, with no acknowledgment from anyone in the chain of command about our extra efforts. And no hazard pay. This while Central Office staff work from home with no masks, comfy as could be, just dumping and piling extra work on the facilities.”
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.
Normally, the department has 1.2 to 1.3 operators per truck, a total of about 350 drivers spread among garages across the state. That ratio means there’s not a lot of wiggle room for drivers to be out sick, [AOT Maintenance Director Todd] Law said.
The agency has been hunting up people with commercial driver’s licenses from other departments and garages to fill gaps if needed, Law said. He said the agency is working to get more drivers CDL-certified and to find smaller trucks that fill-in drivers could handle without the special license.
“Even with that, with the absences we’re anticipating, we may not be able to fill all our trucks,” he said.
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.
Last week, VSEA Corrections Unit members sent a second batch of personal worker appeals to the Governor, each educating about the toll the Scott Administration’s decision to end hazard pay is taking on employee morale. It was a continuation of VSEA Corrections Unit members’ campaign to send new and different batches of testimonials to the Governor every week for the next four weeks; each batch focused on a new organic theme.
The goal of this week’s third batch of testimonials is to personally inform the Governor about the fears many VSEA Corrections members have when ordered to perform their COVID-related duties without the benefit of proper and approved personal protection equipment (PPE).
Example:
“At one point, several officers were sharing one gown that was taped together. Now, we have several gowns but we have to dunk them in bleach water after each use. I always go home wondering if I was safe enough, as some of the officers in my facility contracted COVID, and, in some cases, gave it to their family.”
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.
