Editor's Note: This story was reported and published before DOCCS announced Thursday evening they had put forward a new offer to striking correcion officers that would go into effect if they returned to work on Friday. That deal, DOCCS said, was negotiated directly with striking correction officers and was not done with union support.

It's been 18 days since New York correction officers walked off the job at prisons across the state, demanding better work conditions and a repeal of the state's HALT Act. There was some confusion on some picket lines Thursday about negotiations for a deal, and some protesters decided to quit their jobs altogether.

Spectrum News 1 spoke to people outside Auburn Correctional Facility, where some COs still holding the line said they had planned to vote "yes" on a proposal that was floated Thursday and return to work at 7 a.m. Friday. 

But that plan quickly changed – and now several of the hopeful COs instead made the decision to resign. After nearly three weeks of striking for improved workplace conditions, they said the decision to leave quickly became an easy one.

“It feels like a punch to the gut, you know?” CO Timothy Coretti said after he resigned from the Auburn Correctional Facility Thursday morning.

Like many of his striking coworkers, he expected a different outcome.

“I left my house this morning telling my wife that I’m going to be at work on Friday," said Dennis Chapman, a CO who also resigned. "We showed up here and we were supposed to have a 9 a.m. vote, and we got in and the first thing we’re told is the commissioner is not gonna sign it. It’s no good.”

That vote was on a proposal that correction officers across the state contributed to based off the original consent award from DOCCS AND New York State Correctional Officers & Police Benevolent Association (NYSCOPBA).

The proposal included changes to overtime requirements, mail screenings and a request for zero disciplinary action against officers who participated in the strike. 

Chapman said a majority of picketing COs were ready to accept the proposal and stop the strike.

“That would have gotten the majority to go back, and now, instead of getting us back, I know today alone, I believe 20 of us have resigned, and I think you’re going to see similar numbers across the state,” Chapman said.

The proposal was created independently by striking COs without support from NYSCOPBA, which said at this time, it will not sign this agreement. The union claimed it is the only organization that can legally negotiate on behalf of its members. It said it was working to engage DOCCS and the state to reopen the consent award process with the mediator. 

To that, COs at Auburn said the union has not been acting in members’ best interests. 

Prior to the strike, correctional facilities were operating at 70% of the original staffing model. That staffing model is one of the many complaints COs hoped to resolve through the strikes.

“NYSCOPBA has 100% not heard our demands," Coretti said. "They don’t have our back.”

“Since I’ve started this job, it has seemed that our union and its law firm have always seemed to cater more to what the state wanted more than what its membership wanted,” Chapman said.

Frustrations have been building on both sides of the picket line over the past 18 days as conditions inside the facilities deteriorate, and COs said they feel less and less valued and heard.

“They just haven’t been listening to us the whole time," Coretti said. "It’s getting very frustrating. I know everybody out here is frustrated, I know everybody across the state is frustrated.  But it’s, it feels like a losing battle. And I’m going to take a step ahead, and I can leave there with my, left there today with my head held high.”