Fight for support staff raises will continue!
Now that lawmakers in Austin stripped funding for an across-the-board pay raise out of the budget, union members in Parole and TJJD are fighting back to win raises for clerical and support staff. As a part of that push, TSEU has sent official letters to TDCJ Executive Director Bryan Collier and TJJD Executive Director Camille Cain urging them to include support staff in both agencies in any pay raises. TSEU members are also calling state legislators to ask them to support an emergency pay raise for all state workers through the Legislative Budget Board. See the article on the back page of this UPDATE for information on how to call your legislators for a pay raise and pension funding for all state workers.
The additional funding that union members were able to win for pay raises in TJJD and Parole was designated by lawmakers to go specifically to Parole Officers, Juvenile Correctional Officers (now Youth Development Coaches), and Case Managers over the next two years but should be close to a 5% salary increase. Parole and TJJD leaders have discretion in how that pay raise will be implemented. TSEU is calling on Parole and TJJD to provide the full 5% raise to ALL Parole Division and TJJD staff this September 1st.
VICTORY! Caseload Standards: TDCJ
- Building off the organizing momentum and hard numbers that TSEU built with our 2018 Parole Caseload survey, we won passage of our Parole Caseload bill – HB 4754 by Rep. Ray Lopez. This bill requires the Legislature to study how TDCJ tracks, reports, and budgets for Parole Officer caseloads. The idea going forward will be to use the information gathered in the study to win funding for more Parole Officer positions to reduce caseloads. This is a major step forward in the union’s push for safe and reasonable caseload standards.
VICTORY! Stopping Closures: TJJD
- In TJJD, union members mobilized to defeat a proposed budget amendment that would have shut down the Gainesville State School. TSEU members also quickly pushed back on a proposal by Sen. John Whitmire to shut down all 5 TJJD facilities and move youth to a vacant TDCJ facility outside of Austin. In the end, no TJJD facility closures were authorized by the Legislature. Problems of high turnover and injuries on the job persist in TJJD, but the solution is not closures but increasing pay, staffing levels, and making sure that TJJD staff have the tools to hold youth accountable for their behaviors.