A union leader accused Gov. Pete Ricketts of "playing a game" by offering to negotiate a better labor deal for prison workers following Wednesday's violent incident at the Lincoln Correctional Center.
The union has been offering to work with the governor's office for months to no avail, said Mike Marvin, executive director of the Nebraska Association of Public Employees.
"Our offers have fallen on deaf ears," Marvin said in a news release Friday. Now, he said, the governor wants to come in "at the 11th hour and change things."
Ricketts announced Thursday in a memo to lawmakers that he would consider increasing base pay and providing more flexibility for shifts and salaries if the union agreed to immediately begin negotiations for staff at the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services, separately from other state workers.
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The governor's office said it was acting in good faith.
"This is not a political game as asserted by Mr. Marvin," said Ricketts spokesman Taylor Gage. "This is a serious negotiation that impacts the safety and well-being of corrections workers."
Ricketts' call came one day after inmates attacked and injured nine corrections officers and caseworkers at the Lincoln Correctional Center, a medium/maximum-security prison for adult men near Pioneers Park.
The announcement also followed reports that a staffing review conducted by the Corrections Department had identified the need for 138 added security positions within the prison system, at a cost of $11 million to $14 million, in addition to filling widespread vacancies.
A separate report by a legislative monitor concluded the Corrections Department is facing a staffing "crisis," which will only worsen the longer state leaders take to react.
For example, one prison employee worked the equivalent of 90 hours per week on average for the entire 2015-16 fiscal year, wrote Doug Koebernick, the Legislature's inspector general for corrections. Koebernick also found a 31 percent increase in the average number of monthly overtime hours worked by Corrections Department staff from 2014 to early 2016.
And earlier this month, Lincoln Sen. Kate Bolz penned an opinion piece calling for swift action to address understaffing and overcrowding in the prison system, with recommendations including merit bonuses, limiting overtime and using more county jail cells to accommodate state inmates. Her article was cosigned by fellow Lincoln Sens. Colby Coash, Adam Morfeld and Patty Pansing Brooks.
"There are immediate things that can be done," Bolz said Friday.
Thursday's announcement by the governor came as union leaders were already preparing to begin negotiations for all state employees they represent in early September, as required by law.
In response to Ricketts' memo to lawmakers, Marvin said, "We're willing to talk about all of that, and we think a lot of it's good."
However, he said, negotiating separately for corrections staff at this point not only makes for complicated timing, it also poses legal questions.
State law requires negotiations to cover entire collective bargaining units, instead of individual agencies. Bargaining units are designed to ensure employees doing similar jobs for different departments receive comparable pay and benefits, Marvin said.
The governor's office clarified Friday that it specifically wants to negotiate with protective services workers, a bargaining unit that also includes staff at regional centers and the Youth Rehabilitation and Treatment Center in Kearney.
They, too, have experienced violence on the job.
On Wednesday, the same day as the Lincoln Correctional Center assaults, a staffer was stabbed by an 18-year-old atÌýthe Kearney youth center, a Nebraska State Patrol investigator said in court documents.
Marco Pena, who has been charged with second-degree assault, requested a broom to clean his room around 5:45 p.m., the investigator wrote. Pena then refused to return the broom and threatened to hit the staffer, who backed out and shut the door.
Pena broke the broom before the staffer and another worker re-entered the room, struggled with Pena and restrained him. The staffer then noticed pieces of the broom lodged in the skin over his rib cage, the investigator said.
The staffer was treated and released at a local hospital. Pena went to the Buffalo County jail.
Ricketts' office didn't elaborate on whether all workers within the protective services bargaining unit would benefit from negotiations but noted appendicesÌýwithin union contracts allow for some agency-specific stipulations.
As for timing,ÌýBill Wood, who oversees labor negotiations on behalf of the state, said while formal talks start in September to meet statutory requirements, real work on the deals doesn't typically begin until October or November.
Any new union contract wouldn't go into effect until July 2017, the governor's office said.Ìý
Wood said the goal is to show prison workers "there is some relief coming."
"We want to show the employees that we're cognizant of their concerns."
Meanwhile, groups were planning a pair of rallies to raise awareness and urge the Ricketts administration to act. A gathering on the Capitol's north steps was set for 3 p.m. Saturday, and aÌýformer inmate said heÌýwas planning a protest outside the Governor's Mansion beginning at 12:30 p.m. Monday.
Lacey Westman, the organizer of Saturday's rally, says she worked at the Nebraska State Penitentiary for three years beginning in 2006 and is now enrolled in college.
"Our hope is that it will get the attention of the Legislature, the governor and the administration and for them to see, hey, we're serious about this, Westman said.
Riley Johnson contributed to this story.
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