STRIKING PRISON GUARDS VOW 'BATTLE TO THE VERY END' FOR UNBORN CHILD KILLED
21-DAY OLD STRIKE CONTINUES
Mar. 9, 2025
Striking New York State prison guards urged their colleagues to reject a proposed deal to end the strike.
"Regardless of who goes back in," striking Upstate Correctional Facility guard Mike Ashley said on Sunday, "we're going to battle to the very end."
"No matter what happens," Ashley added, "Upstate will still be here at this barrel."
He was referring to the flaming, wood-filled steel barrels strikers stand around for warmth, that have become an icon of the winter strike.
Ashley spoke during a noon-time Zoom call with strikers from state prisons around the State. The strikers established the daily noontime roll calls last Thursday, when a disinformation campaign by state officials almost broke the now 21-day old wildcat strike.
Ashley, standing with two other strikers, said Upstate would stay on the strike line because a nurse who worked at the prison lost an unborn child as a result of exposure to synthetic opioids.
"We lost a life. We lost an unborn child in this," Ashley revealed. "Nothing worse that can happen in this."
(1-2) A female nurse and (3) Correction Officer from the Upstate Correctional Facility transported to the emergency room of a local hospital after being exposed to suspected synthetic opioids on Jan. 25, 2025. Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
More than 25 workers at Upstate were stricken by suspected exposure to synthetic opioids in January, The Free Lance reported, including the nurse and Correction Officer captured below on Jan. 26.
Not only did the nurse lose a child, but Ashley said the prison’s superintendent, Donald Ulher, denied the nurse time-off to recover.
“Our superintendent had the balls to look directly in these peoples’ face and say, ‘I can cover you for a few days, but it’s not really workers comp.”
“It didn’t even falter them. It didn’t even bother him,” Ashley said. “He didn’t even think that was important.”
The illegal, wildcat strike by New York State prison guards started on Feb. 17.
At its height, more than 9,000 of the state’s roughly 10,500 active Correction Officers and sergeants were on strike at 38 of the state’s 42 prisons, according to the state agency that manages them, the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, or DOCCS.
To replace the striking guards, Gov. Kathy Hochul deployed more than 6,500 National Guard soldiers. Some were sleeping in cells. One said it was “Worse than Afghanistan."
So far, according to officials' calculations, the bill for the 20-day old strike is more than $50 million, DOCCS says. If it lasts a month, it balloons to $106,183,947.
At least seven prisoners prisoners have died since the strike began.
One of them, Messiah Nantwi, was allegedly beaten by guards at the Mid-State Correctional Facility. Mid-State is across the road from the Marcy Correctional Facility, where Robert Brooks was allegedly murdered by guards on Dec. 9, 2025.
Daniel F. Martuscello III, DOCCS’ commissioner, admitted the situation inside New York’s prisons is “volatile.”
The guards' rebellion continues despite a court order issued by a state supreme court justice in Buffalo to return to work.
State Attorney General Letitia James Doxxed 25 alleged stikers last week in an increasingly nasty legal fight. On Monday, James’ office asked the court to jail and fine 145 officers from 29 prisons "for disobedience and/or resistance wilfully offered to the lawful mandate of the New York State Supreme Court."
All 145 officers have been ordered to appear in court in Buffalo at 11:00 AM on Mar. 11.
But Ashley, the guard urging colleagues to continue the strike during Sunday's Zoom call, declared: "We don't fear no man here at Upstate. We don't fear no repercussions. And we don't even fear fucking death in itself."
(1-2) Abandoned strike line across from the Bare Hill Correctional Facility; (3) house in town near the prisons illuminated with Blue Lives Matters colors. Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
New York reached a proposed agreement to end the strike with the union that represents the state's prison guards, the New York State Correctional and Police Benevolent Association, on Saturday. But since it's a wildcat strike not officially unauthorized by the union, it was unclear whether strikers would accept it.
Representatives from each of New York's striking prisons answered that question during Sunday's Zoom roll call.
"I ask for one more day. I ask that you pick your fucking lines up and fight for this unborn child," Ashley said. "This state don't give one fuck about any of you. None. Zero."
At least one striking prison committed to continuing the strike.
"Coxsackie has your back," its representative said.
This is a breaking news report. Check back for updates throughout the day.
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