ATTICA, N.Y. — 17 WNY Corrections Officers have been hospitalized from chemical exposures since August 4.
Now, one retired NYS CO is fundraising in hopes of making a safe work environment for his former co-workers.
Vinny Blasio is a 27-year veteran of the New York State Department of Corrections.
Now retired from his job as a corrections officer, Blasio has taken on a new role as an advocate for his former co-workers, who can’t speak to the media out of fear for their jobs.
“They were coming to me saying ‘We don’t have a voice,’” Blasio said. “The men and women of corrections were reaching out to me, supplying me with information, saying ‘We can’t say it, can you say it for us?' They truly believe they want to strike. If you wanted to give it a scale of 1 to 10, I think right now we’re at 7.”
What does New York State law say about public employees going on strike?
Professor Art Wheaton, the Director of Labor Studies at Cornell University, shared that New York’s Taylor Law prohibits COs from actually going on strike.
“Part of that law says the unions are not allowed to go on strike,” Wheaton said. “Every day you’re on strike, you [could] lose two days of pay, the leaders of the strike can be put in jail.”
Instead, Blasio started his own “S.T.R.I.K.E.”
He doesn’t advocate for a labor strike, so instead he started a fundraiser to support the COs fallen victim to unsafe working conditions.
“[The money is] going to be used for advocacy of the officers,” Blasio said. “Those that may need hospital bills paid for, those that may need supplemental pay, etc.”
He shared that he’s raised more than $5,000 in three days.
In an incident at Collins Correctional Facility on August 4, 11 officers and one inmate went to the hospital after an unknown chemical exposure.
On August 7, some WNY elected leaders, union members, and corrections officers came together and blamed NYS laws and the governor for creating unsafe conditions for officers.
Republican Congressman Nick Langworthy said these stories need to be told. He blames Democrats in Albany for approving laws that he claims are “coddling criminals."
On August 8, the New York State Department of Corrections announced it was investigating an incident at the Wyoming Correctional Facility that sent six officers to local medical facilities.
The department said they were transported "out of an abundance of caution" after a substance was found on an incarcerated individual.
During a stop in Erie County Monday, Governor Kathy Hochul said she is hearing the corrections officers’ safety concerns.
“I’m looking at everything, we have a responsibility to everybody involved in our corrections system to make sure they’re safe,” Hochul said.
She also said there are still no results from the investigations into the chemical exposures at both Collins Correctional and Wyoming Correctional.
