Canadian correctional officers protest slow pace of negotiations with Treasury Board

Last week, correctional officers from over 40 institutions across the country took to the streets to express their frustration with the slow pace of contract negotiations.

Chris Bucholtz, the regional vice-president of the corrections officer union, said the Treasury Board doesn’t respect the work the officers do.

“The government wants to lump us in with other public servants and we do not do cubicle jobs as correctional officers,” Bucholtz said.

Officers once again held information pickets at Collins Bay and Millhaven Institutions near Kingston.

Rob Finucan, the Ontario Regional President of the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers, said more than three years trying to get a contract is inexcusable.

“That’s the frustration… is the lack of respect that the Treasury Board is showing us, and the time frame 38 months is a long time to wait to get a collective agreement settled,” Finucan said.

One of the big stumbling blocks is recognition that correctional officers’ jobs can be dangerous. Recognition, the union says, has been given to other public safety employees with the RCMP, Parks Canada, and Fisheries and Wild Life.

Corrections officers’ jobs have become even more dangerous, says Finucan, with growing issues like Fentanyl now in prisons.

“Our officers inside do the job of a police officer, a firefighter a paramedic: we have to respond to all these situations,” Finucan said. “It’s like a community inside so our officers are responding to all of them so we do, do a different job.”

Coverage for officers injured on the job is another issue yet to be resolved. Finucan says they want their original coverage back.

“You’re direct pay of WSIB so you lose money when you go to that direct pay. So, we want them to revert back to the full pay when an employee gets injured on duty.”

Finucan says there are also issues with the disciplinary process.

“An officer may get into an altercation with a direct manager,” he said. “We don’t want that direct manager involved in the discipline. Have someone else do the discipline for that.”

M.P. Mark Gerretsen was contacted for comment but so far no response has been given.

Union officials say they’re trying to set up another round of negotiations with the Treasury Board for some time in October.

Until a new deal is reached, information pickets like the ones over the last two weeks will continue.