Correctional officers with Florida’s Osceola County Department of Corrections have voted to join Teamsters Local 385 in Orlando, Fla. The 200 officers came together seeking fairness, an end to favoritism and a voice at work.

“We’re all very excited and the morale has definitely gone up,” said Officer Laura Forehand. “I know the Teamsters have a good reputation and a good name. We needed a real union.”

Roger Allain, an organizer with Local 385, said that the officers worked hard to organize.

“They stood strong, never waivered and stayed motivated. They voted 2 to 1, and already, 125 officers have signed up as members—in a right-to-work state,” Allain said.

Allain noted that the officers saw the success of the 20,000 Florida Department of Corrections officers who voted to join the Teamsters in November, and sought to improve their working conditions through joining the Teamsters, as well.

Officer Pete Hernandez has worked at the Osceola County jail since 2001 and has seen a number of changes for the worse over the years.

“Our health care premiums went up. We’ve had no raises for three years. The favoritism is heavy, with picking and choosing of who gets which posts,” Hernandez said. “We’ve come together and everyone is happier now that we’re moving in the right direction. We’ve accomplished something big.”

Officer Forehand is happy to have union representation to help better address the problems she sees in the department.

“Officer safety is very important. We can sometimes have 90 inmates to one officer, and because of the officer-to-inmate ratio and the design of the jail, there are actually showers behind officers’ desks,” Forehand said. “Our seniority was taken away; there’s no open communication; and if we had had a union, I think a lot of the changes wouldn’t have happened.”

“We’re happy to welcome the correctional officers and look forward to negotiating their first contract,” said Mike Stapleton, Local 385 President.

The Osceola County correctional officers join the more than 260,000 public service workers represented by the 1.4 million-member Teamsters Union.

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Twitter
• Share via email