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RIBCO
Articles of Interest
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2006-07-05
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Corrections Union Targets Wages |
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By JUSTIN SCHNEIDER
Herald Bulletin
Indiana corrections officers are some of the lowest paid among surrounding states.
One local union believes that can change.
Around 60 members of the Unity Team UAW/AFT Local 9212, which represents employees of the Pendleton Correctional Facility, Pendleton Juvenile Correctional Facility and Correctional Individual Complex, met last week to discuss compensation and other issues facing corrections officers.
“In the Midwest, including Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan and Illinois, Indiana is dead last,” said Charlie Dodson, an organizer with the Unity Team. “Those are the states we’re in competition with.”
Dodson said Indiana salaries are most comparable to Maine, Montana, New Mexico and Oklahoma, but those aren’t the states Indiana competes with.
Officers in attendance created a list of perceived problems they would like to address.
A few pertained to safety, such as removal the 18-inch key chains carried by officers, creation of safer key policies and defining excessive force. Others focused on officers’ quality of life, including representation in grievances, lunch breaks and being granted emergency leave.
Officers then voted for what they believed were the two most important issues. In the end, receiving annual cost-of-living increases and bringing all facilities back to full staffing were deemed the most pressing.
“I don’t see these as contradictory, I see them as complimentary,” Dodson said. “When we get the pay raises, we will get the staffing back up.”
Retirement benefits for Indiana corrections officers also lag behind those in other states.
Benefits are calculated by taking a percentage of active compensation multiplied by the number of years of employment. For example, an officer who earned $30,000 and worked for 30 years, would earn $18,000 in retirement, based on a 2-percent formula.
According to Dodson, 26 states base retirement benefits on 2 percent of active salary. Eleven others use between 1.75 and 1.99 percent and 10 more use between 1.5 and 1.74 percent.
One state uses a formula based on 1.25 to 1.49 percent and the only one that uses less than 1.25 percent is Indiana at 1.24 percent.
Dodson said the Unity Team is starting to grow again after its ranks were decimated by the loss of collective bargaining.
“We need to work when work is called for. We need to speak when speech is called for. We need to go to meetings when going to meetings is called for.”
What corrections officers earn
(average)
Illinois $42,990
Michigan $42,882
Ohio $34,300
Indiana $27,566
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