AUGUSTA – The labor union for Maine prison guards and the state Bureau of Employee Relations have jointly requested mediation to help with stalled negotiations that sparked 17 days of picketing during the past month.

“We’re still at the table,” Ed Willey, state coordinator for local Council 93 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said Monday. There are still nearly two dozen “subjects” to resolve, he said, so the union and the state are choosing a mediator to help solve those issues.

Ken Walo, director of the bureau, is representing the state in the collective bargaining process. Walo is temporarily on leave, which may delay mediation briefly, said Marc Ayotte, executive director of the Maine Labor Relations Board.

Ayotte said he is close to choosing one of 10 mediators who will be the “best fit” for ironing out differences between the parties.

In late September, corrections officers at five prisons across the state picketed during off-duty hours because they have been working without a contact since July 1. Corrections officers are not permitted to strike, but they may conduct pickets on their own time.

According to Ayotte, AFSCME also has filed a prohibitive-practices complaint with his office regarding a freeze on merit pay raises enacted by the Legislature.

Willey said that while the merit pay freeze – as well as the union’s request for additional prison staff – are not negotiable items, they are prime concerns of prison guards.

“That’s one of the gists of the pickets,” Willey said.

In the current contract, guards were to earn merit raises, he said, and there was a seventh step added to those increases.

The Legislature, however, froze merit pay so those increases were funded only for half of the year, he said. What needs to be done before a new contract is ratified is to take care of what was promised in the previous pact, he added.

According to Willey, guards also are looking for better working conditions at the new prison. Although the Warren facility is up to date compared with the old Thomaston prison, the prisoner population has doubled and the number of staff has remained the same, he said.

That equation is causing an “unacceptable” working environment, Willey said. “These guards feel unsafe. That was never the case at Maine State Prison in Thomaston.”

At the Warren prison, the number of inmate-on-inmate and inmate-on-staff assaults has sharply increased, he noted.

“It’s the management style,” Willey said. “Not [Warden Jeffrey] Merrill – unit management.”

Unit management refers to how inmates are housed and managed.

The prison contains numerous “pods” that house roughly 60 inmates each. The management of those pods is creating isolation between staff communications and training, he said, noting that each unit operates independently from the others.

“We perceive a problem with that,” Willey said.

Some of the issues to be resolved in mediation are mandatory overtime, an across-the-board pay increase and better compensation for longevity, direct care and hazardous duty pay, and shift and weekend differentials. Union members also are seeking an increase in the state’s share of dependents’ health insurance premiums.

“We stand ready to come [back] to the table,” Willey said, but if mediation fails, AFSCME members will request fact finding and arbitration. Mediation is not binding, he said. Arbitration is binding, except for health insurance, retirement and wage issues, he noted.