Tentative deal may avert detention center strike by the SPFPA at the South Texas Detention

More than 300 unionized workers at the South Texas Detention Facility in Pearsall are set to vote Wednesday on whether to ratify the agreement or strike. Among the new contract terms are more affordable health care and improved facility equipment.

About 1,400 detainees are being held at the facility because of their immigration status, and most guards there are union members. Union leaders declined to take a stance on the agreement, but agreed when asked if the chances of strike had lessened.

"I think it is, but the members will have to decide that," said Howard Johannssen, chief negotiator for the International Union, Security, Police and Fire Professionals of America. http://www.SPFPA.ORG

GEO spokesman Pablo Paez said earlier Tuesday that the company does not comment on ongoing negotiations or employee-related matters as a matter of policy. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, which contracted GEO to run the facility, has said the agency is "prepared to respond appropriately" no matter the outcome.

A strike would be the latest problem in Texas for GEO, a Boca Raton, Fla.-based private contractor that is still sorting out two inmate riots since December at a federal prison the company manages in Reeves County.

The latest riot began Jan. 31 and ended Thursday near the remote West Texas town of Pecos. The disturbance left buildings heavily damaged, sent smoke billowing from the facility, and SWAT teams driving inside and out.

http://www.texasprisonbidness.org/scandals/riot-and-mysterious-deaths-geos-reeves-county-detention-center

Inmates and relatives have told news media the riot was prompted by poor treatment, including medical services. Another riot in December left one housing unit damages and cost the county at least $320,000 in repairs.

http://www.kwes.com/Global/story.asp?S=9512165

In San Antonio, union workers arrived to the bargaining table prepared with 100 red picketing posters that read, "ON STRIKE AGAINST GEO GROUP INC. — UNFAIR."

Union workers said the safety of detention officers has been compromised by poor equipment and new guards who have not received proper training.

Located about 60 miles south of San Antonio, the Pearsall detention center is the only unionized GEO facility in the nation, union officials say. Workers sought increased wages, more affordable health benefits and improved working conditions.

The standard wage there is $14.37 an hour, according to union officials. Johannssen said workers would not see an immediate pay boost under the agreement but that new language would make wage hikes more likely.

Negotiations last broke off in January. Johannssen called the monthslong bargaining talks rare, saying that only about 1 percent of negotiations handled by the union come so close to a strike vote.

SPFPA International Organizing Director Steve Maritas is presently preparing to unleash a nationwide organizing drive of all GEO's Group INC. facilities. "The first place we plan to organize is the facilities where they just had the riots" stated maritas.


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