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WKBW 7 News Buffalo
Former NYS Corrections Officer fundraising against unsafe working conditions
By Derek Heid,
6 days ago
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.”
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.
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."
'Enough is enough': WNY leaders blame NYS laws for putting corrections officers in danger
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