Staff at Federal Correctional Complex Florence protest over ‘dangerous working conditions’
FLORENCE, Colo. (KRDO) -- Correctional officers and staff at the Federal Correctional Complex Florence picketed the front gates Thursday morning over poor work conditions.
Members of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 1169, including correctional officers and other staff at FCC Florence, the Colorado AFL-CIO, and the Southern Colorado Labor Council participated in the protest.
The Union says officers have been forced to work overtime. Additionally, non-officers, such as medical staff and counselors, have been forced into working shifts as correctional officers.
“It absolutely is a public safety issue. This is the home of the ADX. The one and only federal supermax in the country, and it is the least staffed prison in our country," Correctional Officer Layth Azzez said.
FCC Florence makes up four facilities, including the high-security United States Penitentiary and the supermax Administrative Maximum Facility, where many of the nation's most high-profile criminals are detained.
The administration is aware of these issues. They need to step up and hire staff and get these issues handled," AFGE member John Holbrooks said.
The employees say they are short 130 correctional officers, and are operating at around 60 percent of full-time staff needed to adequately run the facility.
The workers claim that corners are being cut as a result.
"Corners are cut every day with the forced overtime. That is cutting the corners right there," Holbrooks said. "When you have people in the higher ups saying its cheaper to hire overtime than staffing, that is cutting corners right there. We have mandatory staffing that we have to meet and administration is not meeting that mandatory staffing."
As federal workers, the employees were also protesting the potential for a vaccine mandate to hit their place of work. They fear far dire shortage could come if the mandate is enacted.
"Thats going to be detrimental to us. I talk daily to our staff inside the institution and I would say on this complex if they actually mandate and start discipling staff and sending them home, we are going to lose another hundred staff at least," Holbrooks said.
KRDO reached out to prison officials for and interview and comment on the employee protest. They denied our interview request. Instead, they issued this statement.
"At this time, we respectfully decline to comment," the Office of the Executive Assistant said.
It is legal for prison official to force overtime on federal employees. However, those protesting Thursday morning say they want more of an effort made by regional leadership to hire more full-time staff.
