EDMONTON- Courthouse sheriffs in Edmonton and Calgary have voted overwhelmingly in favour of walking off the job in solidarity, a union spokesman said Sunday.
Andrew Hanon of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) said sheriffs will join the picket line Monday morning. Alberta has 517 sheriffs in total.
A busload of workers from the Saskatchewan Government and General Employees’ Union (SGEU) also arrived at the Edmonton Remand Centre Sunday afternoon, to show their support.
The move comes after striking members from the Edmonton Remand Centre and Fort Saskatchewan Correctional Centre started receiving court orders Sunday morning, informing them of the illegal job action and ordering them back to work.
Deputy Premier Thomas Lukaszuk addressed the media Sunday afternoon, saying more than a dozen members have returned to work.
“A large number of workers has already been calling in and asking what to do and how to return to work because they feel intimidated, relevant to taking that step.”
However, that comment wasn’t met well by members on the picket line.
“The reports that you are receiving about waning picket lines is kind of an atrocity. I’ve spent hours and hours and hours in the last couple days listening to officers telling me do what you’ve got to do. We aren’t going anywhere until we all feel safe,” said Clarke McChesney, Local 003 Chair, AUPE.
The province says the Occupational Health and Safety concerns raised at the new Edmonton Remand Centre were investigated, and no remedial action was identified.
Lukaszuk says if workers have outstanding issues with health and safety, he urges them to go through the correct processes to address them.
“We will always sit with them at the table. We will always negotiate in good will. We will always investigate any and all concerns that they will have, but we will not respond to an illegal walkout and an expectation to have a cup of coffee and sign off on deals just so workers go back to work.”
Lukaszuk says there is now order within both the remand centre and and the facility in Fort Saskatchewan, but stressed that the province will take any and all legal action to get all striking members back to work. However, he hopes the government won’t have to use any means of disciplinary action.
Since Friday afternoon, when officers from the Edmonton Remand Centre initially walked off the job, officers from eight other correctional centres across Alberta joined in the action, in a show of solidarity.
President of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) Guy Smith urged his members to stay strong, and many of them remained on the picket line Sunday, as the mood turned toward anger.
“I don’t know if it’s the fact that I’ve slept for about 48 minutes, or the fact that I’m being told that we’re criminals. And what we’ve done is only provide care, custody and control for those same criminals inside these walls, these unsafe walls, and we’re prepared not to go back there until they made them safe,” McChesney said Sunday morning.
“2,000 officers in this province believe that we’re not going to be bullied back into a place where we don’t feel safe. Period,” McChesney added.
Lukaszuk says the now three-day strike is costing taxpayers a great deal of money.
“We haven’t tabulated it yet, but I can tell you there is physical damage, which somebody has to be paying for. A brand new facility- I don’t think taxpayers should be on the hook for that. We’re paying overtime, we’re bringing resources from outside of the province. This is costing taxpayers a lot of money.”
Just days before the $580 million jail opened, the AUPE said it found five pages of design flaws after touring the facility. At that time, the union asked the provincial government to delay the transfer of prisoners from the old remand centre until the changes were made.
With files from Fletcher Kent.
Follow @CaleyRamsay
Comments