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Correction officers went on strike to protest unsafe working conditions. For years, they have complained about increasing violence in prisons. In 2024, the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision reported record numbers of assaults on incarcerated individuals and staff. 

As conditions worsened in prisons, officers grew upset about the state's use of mandated overtime in the midst of a staffing shortage. DOCCS has been actively recruiting to fill those vacant positions. Meanwhile, officers are working long shifts that keep them away from their families and in volatile prisons for extended periods. 

With the officers reaching their breaking point, the work stoppage began. It started at a few prisons before spreading to most DOCCS facilities. Gov. Kathy Hochul activated the National Guard to provide security at prisons with numerous officers on the picket line. 

Lynne Vincent, an assistant professor of management at Syracuse University's Whitman School of Management, told ÈËÊÞÐÔ½» that the correction officer strike is a "grassroots movement," which is not common in public employee strikes. 

There have been grassroots efforts in the labor movement, such as the successful unionization of employees at Amazon warehouses. Vincent explained that although there are differences between what's happening in New York and workers forming unions at Amazon and other companies, there is a similar theme. 

"We can put this in the context of broader national activity, where there is increasing discontent about work conditions, economic compensation and other factors," Vincent said. "I think this might be the start of something that we see at a larger scale." 

What separates public employees in New York from the national labor movement is the , known as the Taylor Law. The law took effect in 1967 and, among other provisions, prohibits public employee strikes. 

Public employees have violated the Taylor Law to go on strike. In 2005, the Transport Workers Union Local 100 launched a work stoppage amid contract negotiations. The strike lasted three days. There was a strike involving correction officers in 1979. The 16-day protest was also in response to contract talks. 

The current correction officer strike is different from other public employee strikes in New York. Not only is this happening outside of contract negotiations — the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association, which represents most correction officers, ratified a three-year contract in 2024 — but the union has not sanctioned the action. 

In other public employee strikes, the unions have faced significant penalties. Union leaders have served jail time for leading the protests and the organizations have been fined under the Taylor Law. 

Lee Adler, a visiting lecturer at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations, explained that the strike will not be easy to resolve because it's being led by the rank-and-file members, not the union. 

"When the concerns are not economic, but are about absolute health and safety, that makes it very difficult to just go back to work and probably suffer a lot of economic penalties and have nothing change," Adler said. 

He continued, "You always look for, in either a union-called strike or a rank-and-file-called strike, an incentive to go back to work. But it's hard to see just a judge's order being sufficient to compel people to go back to work if going back to work means going back to situations that they feel are quite unsafe to them." 

Under the Taylor Law, the state sought to force the correction officers to return to work. A judge issued a temporary restraining order directing the officers to end their illegal strike and resume their duties. But the striking officers defied that order. 

The correction officers are "taking huge risks" by participating in the strike, according to Adler. Public employees who are involved in work stoppages can be fined two days' pay for every day they are on the picket line. They also face other forms of discipline, including termination. 

The Hochul administration and NYSCOPBA agreed to mediation in an attempt to end the correction officer strike. Those meetings began Monday and will continue this week. 

Vincent is encouraged that both sides are willing to engage in talks. Mediation, she continued, tends to resolve disputes faster than litigation. 

"This is a case where these workers are critical, so getting them back to their jobs as quickly as possible is, I think, in everybody's best interest," she said. 

But Adler notes that it will be complicated because NYSCOPBA didn't call the strike. The rank-and-file officers have issued demands, ranging from repealing a solitary confinement reform law to implementing new recruitment strategies. 

"The union has to be careful here because the union leadership's job is to represent (its members), even if they violate the law," he said. "What the heck are they gonna do? How far can they go when they're not the party that is violating the law?" 

As mediation begins, DOCCS has already taken action against the striking officers. The department announced Saturday that officers who don't return to work will be considered absent without leave, docked pay and lose their health insurance.