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Ontario’s corrections workers are moving toward a strike after union members rejected a new tentative agreement with the government last week.
The Ontario Public Service Employees Union, representing 6,000 jail, probation and parole officers, filed for a “no board report” Friday, which essentially means that working with a conciliator to try to reach a deal has failed.
The union is preparing to strike Jan. 7. Probation and parole officers wouldn’t monitor released offenders and jails would be staffed by managers (except in a crisis like a hostage-taking, when specially trained guards would be called in).
Making things worse, jail managers aren’t happy either. All of the “sergeants” scheduled to work at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre last Sunday called in sick.
“A lot of them (management) are our friends. Good luck. Be safe in there,” said OPSEU bargainer Scott McIntyre in an interview with the Citizen.
He said after the union members rejected the tentative agreement in a two-to-one vote last week, he and the other bargaining-team members met with local unit presidents and got a clear message: They’re to demand an immediate 10-per-cent pay hike, plus 2 per cent a year in a three-year deal and refuse any attempt to keep workers’ pay from rising up the OPSEU pay scale as they gain seniority.
They also demand the government hire 100 new corrections workers to reduce caseloads. The province’s auditor-general has reported that Ontario does a poor job of monitoring offenders who aren’t in jail and that 60 per cent of high-risk offenders commit new crimes. The union blames workloads.
“We acknowledge that this round of negotiations has been challenging,” the government responded in a statement from Community Safety Minister Yasir Naqvi and Treasury Board President Deb Matthews. “However, we remain committed to the collective bargaining process, and to working with OPSEU’s Correctional Bargaining Unit to reach an agreement that is fair and reasonable to both our employees and the public and is consistent with the government’s fiscal plan.”
That fiscal plan is aimed at cutting Ontario’s multibillion-dollar deficit and requires “net-zero” agreements, in which increased salary costs are offset by cuts and efficiencies elsewhere. It would be all but impossible to meet the union’s pay and hiring demands and pull that off.
McIntyre said the corrections unit is infuriated by news that the government is spending $58 million on raises for public-service managers. Their pay has been frozen for long enough that some of them are making less than their subordinates. Some managers have asked for demotions. If there’s money for managers, there should be money for workers, he said.
dreevely@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/davidreevely
查看原文...
The Ontario Public Service Employees Union, representing 6,000 jail, probation and parole officers, filed for a “no board report” Friday, which essentially means that working with a conciliator to try to reach a deal has failed.
The union is preparing to strike Jan. 7. Probation and parole officers wouldn’t monitor released offenders and jails would be staffed by managers (except in a crisis like a hostage-taking, when specially trained guards would be called in).
Making things worse, jail managers aren’t happy either. All of the “sergeants” scheduled to work at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre last Sunday called in sick.
“A lot of them (management) are our friends. Good luck. Be safe in there,” said OPSEU bargainer Scott McIntyre in an interview with the Citizen.
He said after the union members rejected the tentative agreement in a two-to-one vote last week, he and the other bargaining-team members met with local unit presidents and got a clear message: They’re to demand an immediate 10-per-cent pay hike, plus 2 per cent a year in a three-year deal and refuse any attempt to keep workers’ pay from rising up the OPSEU pay scale as they gain seniority.
They also demand the government hire 100 new corrections workers to reduce caseloads. The province’s auditor-general has reported that Ontario does a poor job of monitoring offenders who aren’t in jail and that 60 per cent of high-risk offenders commit new crimes. The union blames workloads.
“We acknowledge that this round of negotiations has been challenging,” the government responded in a statement from Community Safety Minister Yasir Naqvi and Treasury Board President Deb Matthews. “However, we remain committed to the collective bargaining process, and to working with OPSEU’s Correctional Bargaining Unit to reach an agreement that is fair and reasonable to both our employees and the public and is consistent with the government’s fiscal plan.”
That fiscal plan is aimed at cutting Ontario’s multibillion-dollar deficit and requires “net-zero” agreements, in which increased salary costs are offset by cuts and efficiencies elsewhere. It would be all but impossible to meet the union’s pay and hiring demands and pull that off.
McIntyre said the corrections unit is infuriated by news that the government is spending $58 million on raises for public-service managers. Their pay has been frozen for long enough that some of them are making less than their subordinates. Some managers have asked for demotions. If there’s money for managers, there should be money for workers, he said.
dreevely@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/davidreevely
查看原文...
