Press Center

May 18, 2017 - The Ohio DR&C has finally given OCSEA appropriate notification that they intend to layoff the remaining prison farm workers. This comes a year after DR&C closed Ohio’s prison farms and sold off the farm equipment in 2016.

January 31, 2017 - The union representing Ohio prison employees presented its lowest offer yet to take back Ohio’s prison food service from private vendor Aramark. The proposal calls for a $1.226 meal cost and will save $4.4 million a year over Aramark’s current price. The Aramark contract for Ohio’s 26 prisons expires this year on June 30.

December 21, 2016 – The union says Governor John Kasich did the right thing by vetoing the Sunset Review bill, Senate Bill 329. The legislation had the potential for “sunsetting” or abolishing entire state agencies if found to not be “useful” or “effective” by a small legislative review committee.

December 7, 2016 - Members of the largest state employee union today are extremely concerned that the Sunset Review Commission bill, Senate Bill 329, is seeing new life during the lame duck session. The bill has the potential for eliminating entire state agencies, disrupting the lives of millions of Ohioans who depend on public services.

September 28, 2016 – The largest state employees union and numerous stakeholders today are warning Ohioans that Senate Bill 329 could potentially do away with entire state agencies overnight, disrupting the lives of millions of Ohioans who depend on government services.

September 14, 2016 - OCSEA, the union representing state prison farm workers, has received an order dismissing its case regarding the farm closures. Despite OCSEA’s adamant arguments otherwise, Franklin County Court of Common Pleas Judge Holbrook determined that the subject of an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) is the same as the matter before the court and, therefore, the court lacks jurisdiction in the case.

June 16, 2016 - The largest state employees’ union was back in court today to try to stop the sale of Ohio’s prison farms. The Ohio Civil Service Employees Association, representing the farm workers and most other employees in Ohio’s prisons, filed for a Preliminary Injunction Hearing in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas last month. That hearing took place today in Magistrate Elizabeth Watters’ courtroom.

May 25, 2016 - Leaders of the largest state employees union are baffled why Ohio’s state legislature would all but eliminate the only oversight the state has of Ohio’s 26 state-run prisons and two private prisons. Yesterday, the Ohio House of Representatives began fasttracking an amendment to nix the Correctional Institutional Inspection Committee.

May 5, 2016 - The largest state employees union today filed a Temporary Restraining Order in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas to stop the closure of ten state prison farm operations.

April 12, 2016 - Without much explanation, rationale or plan, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction today announced it would be phasing out its farm operations at eight of Ohio’s state prisons. The move would affect 56 members of the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association who work at the farms as “farm coordinators.”