ELMIRA, N.Y. (WENY) -- Corrections officers are on strike outside the Elmira Correctional Facility, as well as other facilities across the state.  New York Governor Kathy Hochul has said she will send in the New York National Guard if the strike does not stop.  However, this is not the first time a strike that demanded state action has happened at ECF.  1979 marked the the first statewide prison walkout in New York, which started in Elmira.  The National Guard was called in to assist with the strike that lasted sixteen days.

"The pendulum swings back and forth on everything," said George Koliwasky.

Koliwasky was a corrections officer for 25 years, many of those years spent at the Elmira Correctional Facility.  Koliwasky says he was on shift when the strike started in 1979.

"We had to go in front of supervisors, sergeants, lieutenants, and refuse a direct order that we were going to stay, that we were going to walk out on strike, and at that point we walked out not knowing what was going to happen," said Koliwasky.  "As the strike went on, everybody started wondering what's going to go, how long is it going to last? What's going to happen to us? What's going to happen to our jobs, our livelihoods, our families?"

Koliwasky joined the picket line with his coworkers outside of ECF, as well as corrections officers from prisons across the state.

"Guards were upset about not being paid what they felt was their due. They also had some concerns about the way that health benefits kicked in,' said Rachel Dworkin, an archivist from the Chemung County Historical Society.  "So if an officer was injured on the job, there was usually a delay between when they received payment for that injury to cover their medical bills and they wanted that to start immediately upon being injured."

To keep the system running amid the strike, the governor called in the New York State National Guard to take over the prison and run it from the inside.  Local reinforcements were also called in as backup.

"The National Guard was called in, and it wasn't just the National Guard who was dealing with the strike," said Dworkin.  "The National Guard were handling the prisoners, but then there were also security issues on the outside of the prison that were being handled by the Chemung County Sheriff's Office and the Elmira Police Department."

New York State and the corrections officers were able to come to an agreement that ended the strike on May 4th, 1979.  This was a three year agreement, and the Chemung County Historical Society says guards received a 7% raise for the first year, and then a variable yearly raise.  guards also received immediate payouts for on the job injuries, and bonuses depending on seniority.  However, the majority of the corrections officers in Elmira ended up voting against that agreement.