DOCS member earns 2003 ‘Privatization Buster’ award

PUTTING THE UNION FIRST — PEF President Roger Benson and Vice President Pat Baker present Bill Parolari with PEF's Privatization Buster Award at the 25th Annual Convention. Parolari has played a pivotal role in stopping inmate labor and saving jobs for members at the Wyoming Correctional Facility. — Photo by John Epting

Inmate labor curbed at Wyoming Correctional Facility
DOCS member earns 2003 ‘Privatization Buster’ award

By DEBORAH A. MILES
Catching management in the act and stopping it from taking work away from union members has earned Bill Parolari PEF’s Privatization Buster Award.

A vocational instructor at Wyoming Correctional Facility and longtime leader on the Joint PEF-Department of Correctional Services (DOCS) Labor-Management Committee, Parolari put the brakes on a situation that has been plaguing the prison system for years — inmate labor.

“Many of the correctional facilities across the state use inmates to do a lot of things,” Parolari said. “When it came to my attention that management at Wyoming was going to use an inmate to fill a manual communications position in the PS&T unit, I wanted to nip that in the bud.”

Challenging management
He did. In less than a week, Parolari made certain management realized it was indirectly contracting out a service and taking a job away from a union worker.

A PEF member was subsequently awarded the position, which required skills in sign language to communicate with the deaf population at the prison during classes and counseling sessions. Had an inmate been allowed to do this, Parolari said security problems may have surfaced.

“We got it stopped so fast, it made your head spin,” Parolari said.

“If you can stop something right away, that’s the easiest way to accomplish your goal. It saves PEF time, money and resources. And, we saved a job. This shows we have a good labor-management relationship. It’s all about putting the union first.”

Parolari has been putting the union first for a long time. Gail Stallone, the Executive Board member who nominated Parolari for the Privatization Buster Award, described him as vigilant and aware.

Saving jobs for members
“What happened this year at Wyoming is something we’ve had problems with all along,” Stallone said. “If it wasn’t for Bill’s quick recognition of the problem and action, this job would have been given to an inmate. This effort did not take organizing rallies or mobilizing divisions. Because of his quick action, it was resolved before it got to that point.

“Bill was one of the people who played a pivotal role when the state wanted to slip inmates into various positions and when it tried to bring in the Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) to prepare inmates to take the General Education Development (GED) test. He has always been there to make sure our jobs wouldn’t be replaced,” she said.

Parolari said he was amazed and elated to receive the award.

“You don’t get many perks for being a union leader. This award makes me feel recognized for doing something, being part of the process and keeping things going. I’ve always put the union ahead of my job,” he said.

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