By Jennifer Gomori, POJ Editor

Alpena County Corrections Officers did not feel like their representation needs were being met by their former union, especially when their pensions were frozen during their last contract negotiations. 

The 16-member group voted unanimously to part ways with Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) and join the Police Officers Labor Council (POLC) in May 2025. 

“I started here in 2020, and they were here before that,” said Ryan Wilson, Alpena County Corrections Local Union President, of the FOP. “I believe they’ve been with us for about 8 years.”

When Wilson was elected Local President, he wanted to start off on the right foot by becoming as well-educated in labor relations matters as he could.

“When I became Union President, I reached out to (FOP). The Rep. told me, ‘I’ll be out there soon to meet up with you and give you all of our information and tell you all you need to know.’ A year and half later, I still have not met the person,” Wilson said in July.

“They were nonexistent to us. They never got a hold of us for anything,” he said. “Our last negotiations went horrible. They didn’t really fight for us at all. The only time we heard from them was when we reached out to them.”

Alpena County Corrections Officers were particularly displeased with FOP after their pensions were frozen despite the fact that FOP was able to maintain pension benefits for other Alpena County Employees they represented.

“I wasn’t a part of the last negotiations, but from speaking with the previous president, everything we asked for wasn’t followed through with,” Wilson said. “There was no fighting anything. If the County said ‘no,’ the Union Rep. took it as a loss. Between Corrections, Road Division and Central Dispatch, we were the only department to fully get our pension pulled from us. It was frozen. Our Union Rep. represented Deputies and Central Dispatch and they were able to do the hybrid pensions.”

That meant existing Employees in those two groups kept their pensions, and all New Hires received 401(k)s instead of pensions. Corrections Officers were “completely frozen out of” their pensions and they all have 401(k)s now. 

After hearing about the POLC from former Alcona County Corrections Officers, Wilson began checking out the Union. “Part of the reason we chose POLC is a couple Employees here came from a different County department and they had POLC and they highly recommended them,” he said. “I started to research them and had meetings with (POLC Membership Services Representative) Chris Watts and I was sold. I had Chris come out to meet with our group and everyone else thought it was a good idea.”  

Wilson said they were very interested in being able to partake in PORAC Legal Defense Fund law enforcement legal insurance at a discounted rate as POLC members. “The big service is the legal protection. Everyone, they’re happy about that,” he said. 

With their prior contract expiring Dec. 31, 2025, POLC Labor Rep. John Stidham was preparing the group for their first negotiations meeting in early August. But this time around, Alpena County Corrections Officers are getting timely responses to their concerns and Wilson is receiving long-overdue Union training. 

“Everything has been going great. Even before we were officially with POLC, I was in contact with Chris Watts. Chris would call me out of the blue and check in and see how we were doing,” he said. “When we moved over to John (Stidham), he’s been awesome too. Both Chris and John are very knowledgeable. I’m new to this Union stuff. They’ve been explaining things to me. They’ve been very helpful.”