Correctional officer union sues city
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The Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association, led by Benny Boscio (left), sued the city this week claiming that the Department of Correction violated the city’s civil service laws by telling officers to speak with the federal monitor without union representation present. Eagle finale photo by Jacob Kaye
By Jacob Kaye
The union representing correctional officers working on Rikers Island sued the Department of Correction this week, alleging the agency illegally told officers to speak with the federal monitor responsible for tracking violence in the jail.
The lawsuit, which was filed in Queens County Supreme Court, accuses the DOC of engaging in “anti-union animus,” and calls on a judge to declare that the city agency violated the terms of the city’s labor laws by “attempting to communicate with members of [the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association] and engaged in conduct that is determined to have had a chilling effect on protected right.”
The union claims that the DOC violated the city’s civil service laws when top officials at the agency told individual officers, including union members, that they should speak with members of the federal monitoring team during their frequent fact-finding missions. The federal monitoring team, which is led by federal monitor Steve J. Martin, was created by a federal judge in 2015, and exists to ensure that the agency is complying with the consent judgment reached in Nunez v. the City of New York, a class action lawsuit that centered on civil rights abuses committed by correctional officers against detainees. The monitoring team is tasked with tracking conditions in Rikers Island and acting as the eyes and ears of the federal court in the case.
The lawsuit comes as the Legal Aid Society and the office of the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York – who together represent the plaintiffs in the case – have begun to call on the federal judge in the case, Laura Swain, to institute a federal receivership over Rikers Island.
A receivership, which COBA’s leadership has said they strongly oppose, could see a court-appointed authority take over management of the jail complex in crisis. The receiver would likely have the power to bypass the city’s contract with the union, and make hiring, firing and other personnel decisions that go beyond those defined in the city’s civil service laws.
COBA’s lawsuit, which names the City of New York as the only defendant, revolves around a series of communications sent by DOC leadership to officers after they were ordered by Swain to do so. COBA claims that despite operating under the order of a federal judge, the DOC broke the law when communicating directly with union members without first going through COBA.
"The right to Union representation is fundamental to every COBA member and is well established under New York State law,” Benny Boscio, COBA’s president, said in a statement regarding the lawsuit. “The Department of Correction blatantly violated that right with a misleading and intimidating communication that ordered COBA members to subject themselves, without representation, to questioning by the Federal Monitoring team that could lead to discipline.”
“Today's lawsuit petitions the court to remedy DOC’s anti-Union animus by declaring that DOC’s communications were an illegal intimidation tactic,” Boscio added. “We hope this lawsuit will halt DOC’s anti-union communications moving forward."
In a statement to the Eagle, a spokesperson for the city’s Law Department denied the DOC had committed any wrongdoing in reminding their officers to speak with the monitoring team.
“DOC has appropriately asked employees to properly comply with Court orders and the Union’s claims are without merit,” the Law Department spokesperson said.
Poor communication
Earlier this year, the federal monitor accused DOC Commissioner Louis Molina of failing to properly communicate five serious incidents, two of which resulted in detainee deaths, that occurred within Rikers Island.
The alleged failure to report the incidents led to tensions between the monitoring team, Molina and Mayor Eric Adams, who defended his commissioner and suggested that Martin didn’t understand his role as a monitor despite it being defined by a federal judge.
As a result of the incident, Swain ordered that DOC leadership and staff be “advised that they must engage with the monitor and must be candid, transparent, forthright and accurate in their communications with the monitor.”
Following the judicial order, Kimberly Joyce, the DOC’s new Nunez manager, sent an internal communication and physical mail to all DOC staff, including union correction officers. In the August communication Joyce said that, “the Monitoring Team continues to have the authority to speak with any member of the Department about any issue related to the Nunez court orders and are permitted to have confidential communications with Department leadership and staff outside the presence of other Department personnel.”
“If you are contacted by any member of the Monitoring Team, you should respond timely and continue to speak candidly, forthrightly, and accurately,” Joyce added. “Nothing less is expected. Of utmost importance to the Monitor is receiving ‘accurate, timely, and reliable information.’
In their suit, COBA calls the communication an “illegal and mistaken attempt to comply with the court[’s]” order.
The union claims that the DOC failed to notify officers of their right to union representation during their talks with the monitor, a notification that the union claims is required as per the 2015 consent judgment.
Boscio and COBA leadership have made it no secret that they aren’t fans of the monitor or a potential receivership.
In June, Boscio and several other union members heckled New York City Comptroller Brad Lander and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams as the pair of electeds called for receivership after a visit to Rikers Island.
After Williams and Lander left, Boscio took the mic.
“Nobody's talking about the ineffectiveness of the federal monitor,” Boscio said.
When asked in June by the Eagle about his opposition to receivership, Boscio said that a receiver wouldn’t “make our problems go away,” and instead said that he believed that Molina and Adams could together turn around conditions in the jail.
“The reality is that the commissioner that's in place now has made improvements,” he said.
