水果派AV

Gov. Kathy Hochul announced that Martin Scheinman has been retained as a mediator. Scheinman held an initial virtual meeting Wednesday with the Hochul administration and New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association, the union representing most state correction officers.聽

"I agreed to help and to do so quickly," Scheinman said in a statement.

When Scheinman announced the mediation schedule, it was slated to begin Tuesday and run through Thursday. But it was moved up a day after NYSCOPBA pushed for an earlier start. The Hochul administration agreed to the updated timeline.聽

More meetings will be scheduled as needed, according to Scheinman.聽

The participants in the mediation sessions will include state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision Commissioner Daniel Martuscello III and Michael Volforte, director of the state Office of Employee Relations. NYSCOPBA President Chris Summers is among five representatives from the union who will be involved in the process.聽

"I have determined it is in the parties' best interests to set an aggressive mediation schedule to discuss numerous outstanding issues fueling the strike," Scheinman said.聽

The correction officer strike began Monday at three correctional facilities. It expanded to more than 25 prisons, including Auburn and Cayuga correctional facilities, on Tuesday.聽

Correction officers are striking due to unsafe working conditions. Their demands include repealing a solitary confinement reform law and implementing various recruitment strategies to address a staffing shortage.聽

State law prohibits public employee strikes. A judge issued a temporary restraining order requiring the officers to end their work stoppage, but they have defied that ruling.聽

Scheinman is concerned that resolving the conflict "may be frustrated by disregarding the court's order." NYSCOPBA has not sanctioned the strike.聽

Despite the challenges, Scheinman said he is confident that mediation "can help the parties open a constructive dialogue to move towards resolution of their differences."聽

The state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision has already made some concessions, including suspending parts of the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement Act and rescinding a controversial memo that would've considered 70% staffing levels as fully staffed in prisons. But it wasn't enough to end the statewide strikes, which continued Friday.聽