Angry correctional officers rail at province, union head at Queen’s Park

Correctional workers picketed outside Queen’s Park Thursday morning, telling the province that it needs to do better after they overwhelmingly rejected a tentative contract offer Wednesday night.

“This is a wake-up call for Kathleen Wynne,” said OPSEU president Warren (Smokey) Thomas earlier in the day. “I call on this government to come back to the bargaining table with proposals that recognize the extraordinary skills, commitment and courage required of correctional staff.”

Workers who stormed the Ontario legislature didn’t hesitate to criticize Thomas’s part in the negotiations, too.

“You haven’t wanted to hear s*** of what we’ve had to say for the last year,” one worker charged. “So why you’re standing here pretending to give a s*** is beyond me.”

The 5,500 employees who work in provincial jails, correctional facilities, youth centres and as probation and parole officers have been working without a contract since last December. The proposed three-year deal that was reached Nov. 23 was rejected by a 67-per-cent margin.

Among key issues for employees is caseload, wage freezes and the creation of a guaranteed standalone bargaining unit for correctional employees, which they have demanded for several years.

“Let’s talk about a significant, meaningful wage adjustment,” Chad Oilfield, OPSEU president from Maplehurst Correctional Centre, charged Thomas in front of Queen’s Park. “Something pensionable. Something for everybody. Let’s get the wage grid freezes off the table … and a core-only C.A. (collective agreement). That’s what we want.”

Wage freezes of officers who have not yet reached the top of pay scales leaves veteran officers making less than new employees.

The protests come just three days after a 12-hour standoff at a Thunder bay jail left a correctional officer and three inmates injured.

Union officials say if the province doesn’t make another contract offer, correctional officers could be on strike by January.