NH Department of Corrections

(Concord NH) On Friday December 21, 2009 the ballots to determine who would be the exclusive bargaining agent for the NH State Correctional Officers, Probation Parole Officers and Chief Probation Parole Officers were counted by employees of the New Hampshire Public Employee Relations Board.

By the end of the process it was evident that more than 450 state corrections officers and probation and parole officers voted to leave the State Employees Association (SEA).  Members of the groups chose to remove what they describe as an aging, ineffective union, whose time has obviously come and gone, and were excited about ushering in a new era of superior representation with the New England Police Benevolent Association.

New England PBA Executive Vice President William Ryan stated; “SEA has ignored the NH Department of Corrections for years, and for them to try to mimic New England PBA’s superior representation at the eleventh hour simply didn’t work.  The DOC has a lot of ongoing issues, and for the officers to leave SEA during this turmoil is an extreme vote of confidence in New England PBA and our legal team.”

New England PBA New Hampshire State Director Ron Scaccia declared; “We are elated at the election outcome. We're proud to have back the corrections officers for a second time.  They weren’t getting enough attention as part of an 8000 member union.”

In the past, the corrections officers complained that the SEA was not doing enough to represent them.  Mark Jordon current President of the SEA chapter which represented NH Correctional officers stated; “People are fed up with the SEA completely; they feel betrayed by them.   They don't feel they've been represented.  They wanted to try a different union to see if we can get better representation." Jordan said he has contacted the SEA regarding appeals, personnel rules and other issues with administrators and often has not gotten a timely response. "The SEA every time has failed us miserably," he said. "We need a union that will stand behind us and support us."

Probation and Parole Officers as well as Parole Supervisors also joined the NH State Liquor Inspectors who voted three weeks ago to join the New England Police Benevolent Association.  Steve Arnold NH Legislative Director was quoted as saying; “The NH Probation and Parole Officers are the utmost professionals and their decision to go with a professional all law enforcement organization like New England PBA is obviously the right choice.  As I have said numerous times, our best advertising comes from our members. We will provide the names and telephone numbers of our Local Presidents so that interested parties can inquire about the quality of service we provide.”