Sheriff's Department Deputies Seek Union for Employees at the
House of Corrections

By MANDY LOCKE

Complaining of inconsistent leadership and frequent deviations from
department policies, deputies at the Edgartown House of Corrections will
vote this month to seek union representation from the Massachusetts
Correctional Officers Federated Union.

According to many current and former correctional officers,
employee-management relations inside the jail have been strained for a
long time.

"It feels like we're fighting to have the jail run
properly," said one current employee, rattling off a list of
formal jail policies that he said some management officials choose to
ignore when it infringes on the requests of favored inmates.

Tensions reached a boiling point this summer after department
leaders disciplined officers in the wake of the May escape of
22-year-old inmate David Luce. When Sheriff Michael McCormack attempted
to demote one long-term employee who supervised the facility the night
of the escape, the employee resigned rather than revert to deputy
status.

Demotion, sources argued, was not a specified disciplinary action
listed in county personnel bylaws that govern the employment of
correctional officers. Provisions for demotion have since been added to
the disciplinary structure for county employees.

"We're not fighting for more money," said another
current employee who wishes to remain nameless. "We simply want a
set of rules that are followed and not changed on a whim."

But the move to unionize took Sheriff McCormack, himself a 25-year
employee of the department, by surprise.

"I don't know what the issues are, and I certainly
can't talk to [officers] about it now," Mr. McCormack said,
referring to national labor laws which restrict during the pre-vote
period any communication between employees and management that may be
interpreted as a threat or promise. "But I certainly support their
right to join. And if they vote it in, we'll certainly work
through those issues."

Mr. McCormack said he is anxious to learn more about the issues
driving his employees to seek union representation.

His employees - 13 deputies and a group of eight sergeants and
lieutenants who will vote in a separate block - are anxious to
share their frustrations.

Ninety per cent of the deputies and sergeants signed their names to
a petition to form a collective bargaining unit this summer. Signatures
from only 30 per cent of employees, according to union representative
Paul Reynolds, are required in order for the National Labor Relations
Board in Boston to schedule a vote.

Frustrated deputies aim much of their criticism not at the sheriff,
but rather at deputy superintendent Mary Lee McCormack, the
sheriff's wife and head officer at the jail.

"They've been tolerating a system from Superintendent
McCormack that ranges from extreme favoritism to extreme
harshness," Mr. Reynolds said.

One former long-term employee attributes his resignation from the
department to an unwillingness to work under Mrs. McCormack.

"It got to the point when I would much rather deal with
hostile inmates than Mrs. McCormack," he said.

Some current employees charge that the jail is steeped in patronage
- a code under which, sources say, employees who remain silent
when rules are broken are fast-tracked to higher positions. One
low-ranking employee, sources say, was promoted four ranks from deputy
to major within three years.

"That was the last straw for most of the old crew," said
a former employee. "The sheriff has lost so many employees in the
last several years." He estimated the turnover at about 30
correctional officers in the last five years.

Some employees said it is poor management, not poor facility
conditions, that contributes to the frequent inmate escapes - more
than 10 since 1977.

"It looks like they want us to move from a badly run, outdated
facility to a badly run, state-of-the-art facility," one employee
said.

One employee said that when he followed proper procedure in
performing nightly bed checks by shining a light on inmates and watching
for signs of breathing, inmates would complain to Mrs. McCormack. She
then demanded that deputies simply verify a human lump in the bed during
nightly checks, the employee said.

Sources said they also feared enforcing any sort of disciplinary
actions with the inmates, because jail leadership would often reverse
the punishment and chastise the offending employee.

"We have absolutely no leg to stand on when
disciplining," one source said. "If we ever lock an inmate
down, [Mrs. McCormack] would let them out."

Some employees said they also fear that potentially dangerous and
ill-behaved inmates are being granted work-release or road crew
privileges over the recommendations of several deputies and sergeants.
Some said that Mr. Luce, the inmate who escaped this summer, should
never have been assigned to road cleanup.

The last several months have been particularly challenging for
correctional officers, sources said.

After the sheriff and other high-ranking jail employees learned of
the union petition, they changed the decade-old method of choosing
schedules. Instead of allowing employees to choose four-month schedules
according to seniority - rank and length of employment - the
superintendent is now assigning shifts. Employees who led efforts to
unionize interpret the move as retaliation for their attempts to
organize, and said they have been assigned shifts directly opposite to
those they have typically chosen in the past.

Mr. Reynolds said he filed unfair labor charges against the sheriff
for the policy change. The matter has yet to be resolved.

The sheriff and the attorney for the county in the matter said they
could not comment further on these issues due to strict laws limiting
their statements before the vote.

Mr. Reynolds expects a vote within two weeks for the deputies and
another vote in the coming months for sergeants and lieutenants. Votes
will be cast through the mail over a 10-day period.

"The community needs to know what goes on in the jail -
all the secrets," one former employee said. "They need
someone to go in there and do a clean sweep. It's a
nightmare."