Nebraska Corrections Officers Seek Out F.O.P.
(Photo: Ian Waldie/Getty Images)
Via the Omaha World-Herald:
Frustrated by high turnover, lack of salary increases for longevity and an increase in assaults by inmates, state corrections officers are seeking a new union to represent them.
A group of corrections employees is circulating petitions to be represented by the Fraternal Order of Police, a union that represents corrections workers in Douglas and Lancaster Counties, as well as scores of police officers and sheriffs deputies across the state.
Since 1991, corrections officers, corporals and sergeants, as well as security workers at state regional centers and youth treatment facilities, have been represented by the Nebraska Association of Public Employees. NAPE is the state’s largest public employees union, representing about 10,000 state workers of all kinds.
But those organizing a vote to switch to the Fraternal Order of Police said that the unique issues and working conditions faced by the 1,600 security workers in state prisons and other institutions have not always been heard as they are lumped together with the thousands of other employees represented by NAPE.
“We want someone who understands us,” said Carla Jorgens of Lincoln, a corrections corporal who joined the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services in 1997.
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