NUPGE Correctional Officer Conference

The agenda on the second day was full. Some of the issues discussed were: electronic supervision programs; duty to accommodate; mentally ill inmates; direct supervision model; staff/inmate ratio, related assaults; and security threat groups.

I opened the discussion in relation to the delegate’s interest in co-ordinating our efforts in a similar campaign as the one presented the previous day. An agreement was reached that we would move forward with collecting information to plan for a national campaign that would raise awareness of common interests.

On Saturday we attended the “Punch up at Parliament” The Canadian Emergency Services Boxing Association (C.E.S.B.A.) Monies raised were donated to the CPA-Robert Warner Memorial Fund. OPSEU also donated money to the Fund. I had the honour to help present a plaque to Terrence “TNT Kid Dynamite” Thomas. Terrence received the plaque from C.E.C.B.A. and OPSEU in recognition for his community service over the years with youth. Terrence a P&P officer and former C.O. from Mimico made us very proud as he also won his match. Congratulations again Terrence!

On Sunday I marched in the Peace Officers Memorial Parade in Ottawa. This was my second time in the parade and I felt honoured to carry the NUPGE flag in the colour party. Ontario Corrections is the only Province not to have a memorial dedicated to fallen Peace Officers. Both Community and Institutional need to be more vocal about needing to have one us at Queens Park in recognition for our fallen sisters and brothers. Raising a positive profile for Corrections in the public eye would be a benefit to all of us.

In Solidarity

Dan Sidsworth

Link to NUPGE http://www.nupge.ca/news_2008/n29se08b.htm

NUPGE Correctional Officer conference

Well it was a long drive from the GSB to Ottawa but well worth it last night. The NUPGE Correctional Officer conference started this morning. It is a two day conference held once a year in Ottawa in conjunction with the peace officers memorial ceremony on Parliament Hill. The NUPGE corrections component is well represented with members of unions from our counterparts in British Columbia; Saskatchewan; Manitoba; Nova Scotia; P.E.I.; Newfoundland and Labrador.

The agenda started with opening remarks from the NUPGE president. The day was spent going over reports from each province and sharing information on issues relating to bargaining updates; collective agreements; and Health and Safety issues. Many issues are very similar if not the same in each province such as hours of work; equipment; community escorts to overcrowding. The report from OPSEU was presented by Jack Hopkins MCYS MERC chair; Brian Chauvin JPH&SC chair; and myself.

A presentation was made by a staff representative from the European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU) who represent 217 unions of which about 300,000 are prison employees. Their role is similar to that of NUPGE in that they coordinate campaigns, education, and research. The presenter discussed issues their unions are struggling with and described a campaign regarding overcrowding.

The conference continues tomorrow with a full agenda, and a tour of OCDC.

In Solidarity

Dan Sidsworth

Mimico GSB Asbestos settlement

The long battle at the GSB regarding the asbestos case from Mimico was finally settled yesterday. The grievance was first filed in 2004, as a group and policy grievances. The highlights of the settlement are;

• a tracking system for employees who worked at Mimico;
• Asbestos training for members across the Ministry;
• Asbestos monitoring and reports to be provided to all Local H&S committees and to the Provincial Committee.
  
  The employer has admitted it breached the Regulations relating to asbestos and the health and safety provisions of the Collective Agreement. It has not admitted any wrong doing or liability. That said the employer agreed to general damages to be paid to the Union. The money is spoken to in the settlement as to how the union will handle the money. This was done to avoid the money going into the unions general revenues and not coming back to the affected grievors as has happened in the past.
  
  The money will be handled in two ways.
  1. $ 60,000 will be paid to the estate of Terry Pollock as general damages;
  
  2. $ 20,000 will be paid as general damages to the union, in trust, for an annual Scholarship fund for the children of OPSEU members. This trust fund is to be named in honour of Curt Bishop who was very compassionate about this issue and worked many hours on this case.
  
  This is a good settlement as it protects future members H&S, tacks members who have been exposed to asbestos, and penalizes the employer for breaching the act and collective agreement.
  We will be lobbying the union to contribute to the found and set up a committee to administer what is now the Curt Bishop Scholarship Found.
  
  I want to thank all the people who worked on this grievance file over the years including; Greg McVeigh; John McEwen; Dave Graves; our council John Brewen, our Lisa McCaskell, Teri Aversa; members of the provincial H &S committee.
  
  In solidarity
  
  Dan Sidsworth

Toronto South Detention Centre

In May I wrote to the ADM informing him of concerns with the lack of consultation or meaningful input into the process and development of the two new facilities, the Toronto South Detention Centre,(TSDC) and the Regional South West Detention Centre (RSWDC). The Ministry, MERC, and JPH&SC, agreed to participate in joint consultation to ensure that the best possible facility is designed; one that is safe, secure and efficient.

Yesterday we met with the management group developing the TSDC. We agreed to form a committee to facilitate the consultation process and to form sub-committees to include members from the Toronto Jail, Mimico, the Central Region, CECC, and CNCC.

These sub committees will be broken down into specific departmental areas and streams e.g. security, health care, diversity, IT, A&D. Subcommittee members will serve on an intermittent, or “as needed basis”, to attend discussions and work in groups to review design criteria and ensure that best practices and innovative design considerations are employed for the new facility and for the future. We hope to set up a similar process for the RSWDC.

The idea is to include the Local Executive and members of the Toronto Jail, and Mimico as they are most impacted as well as drawing from the experience of our members from other institutions. Up to five members may sit on a subcommittee. As someone who worked at an institution where this was not done during the early stages, this is a great step forward and will be a benefit to both parties. Hopefully, the same pitfalls that happened at CECC, CNCC, MHCC, and others can be avoided.

The next stage of the committee will be to develop operating procedures, and practices for the new institutions. I will be contacting the Local Presidents to discuss inviting interested stewards from these Locals to participate in a positive and constructive manner.

In Solidarity

Dan Sidsworth

H&S Escort sub-committee

I participated in the H&S Escort sub-committee meeting this week in Toronto. This was the first meeting of the JPH&SC since the passing of Curt Bishop. Before the meeting started we observed a moment of silence in honour of his memory and his years of service to this committee.

Some of the issues the employer brought to the table were:

• lack of escort opportunities for trained unclassified COs;
• COs avoiding escort assignments;
• Unclassified COs avoiding or refusing to complete escort training;

The end result was the employer needs to manage the workplace and to follow the protocols as agreed. A list was provided to the union of the unclassified COs not completing or refusing the escort training. That list identified only five (5) in the whole province that have not completed the escort training without a valid reason. Not a major concern by any stretch.

Their real concern was returning members that had retired and not received the training, as they were grandfathered into the protocol. The union stated that the employer did not make it a requirement of employment when they were rehired and as such should not take action against them now as it would be punitive. It was suggested that on a go forward basis the employer may want to make it a known condition of employment when rehiring retired members.

Some of the issues the union brought to the meeting were:

• Delays of escort vests being issued;
• Pre-booking police for hospital watches, mainly in central region;
• Immigration doing bargaining unit work on escorts;
• Access/egress to institutions regarding weapons and equipment, specific examples were OCI and Kenora Jail;
• FleetNet radios, lack of repeaters.

All are serious issues in their own right, and violations of the employers own policies, or agreements with the union.

The last issue is very disturbing in that the idea of the FleetNet radios was intended to provide continuous and uninterrupted contact with the institutions; the repeaters for the radio signal are located in the vehicles. Without the vehicle the radios are useless.

Members at the TEDC did a H&S work refusal upheld by the MOL. The employer was ordered to put in place a compliance plan. The employer has appealed this order and provided cell phones. The MOL has directed the employer that “cell phones were not a viable back-up to communications method and did not meet the intention of the order.”

The Union notified the employer a memo dated July 31 2008, which was not vetted or shared with the committee, directing escort staff to use alternate communication methods, is in violation of the MOL order and as such should be rescinded without delay.

The next JPH&S meeting is scheduled for November fourth in Windsor.


In Solidarity

Dan Sidsworth

Week ending Septeber 19, 2008

The Regional Labour Relation Forums (R-LRF) are set to go for this fall. I have advocated for some form of regional level discussions for some time. They are finally taking place after many delays and obstacles. The first meeting took place in February in the Northern Region and I received positive feed back. In the Western and the Central Region dates have been set, and a tentative date set for Eastern Region.

The gaol of these committees is to empower the Local parties and deal with their issues. This is an opportunity for the Local Presidents, Superintendents, Regional Director, and a member from MERC, to sit down and have some straight forward discussions on issues in our workplace. It’s a chance for the locals to have direct contact with the decision makers and put “Relations” back into “Labour.” If things get bogged down at the local level, we now have an opportunity to start moving the inertia of bureaucracy and use that interest based problem solving we have been told they are interested in using.

At the same time this gives us the opportunity to network and coordinate our efforts. This will benefit the Institutions over time and is important as we head into this round of bargaining.

The conversion (rollover) agreements have been slow to effect changes in the best of cases. In keeping with the spirit of the agreement, vacancies were to be identified and filled by the end of this year. When rollovers have occurred, they are long over due, and very consuming of time and resources. Disclosure has been slow or not forthcoming at most worksites. I have spoken with many Local Presidents and staff and we will be filing a Policy Grievance. Locals like OCI, Sudbury, Stratford, TEDC, have identified vacancies but the employer has not confirmed or shared the BAM’s with the Local. We will continue to chip away on this issue.

Bottom line is we need better language in the collective agreement. Support our bargaining team and let them know this is an important issue.

In Solidarity

Dan Sidsworth

Week ending September 12, 2008

I want to thank the members of Local 719 at the Kenora Jail and the local president for their hospitality. I spent two days in Kenora at the local completing the staff briefings regarding the closing of the Y.O. units.

With Kenora being the most impacted of the adult institutions, it was important the members be briefed in person on all the information. The MERC agreement will save jobs for all eight members who other wise would be out of a job. The disentanglement of the Y.O. units at HWDC, OCDC, TBCC, and Kenora Jail continues and is a work in progress.

The other big news this week was the failure of the OPS negotiations. I expected that someone should'a/would'a have been at least consulted from our division when discussing the reconfiguration of the corrections division. That said a great opportunity was missed to better represent our members. We will move forward together, that is what we do, we are a real union. Perhaps the elected Corrections Bargaining team will have the opportunity to address some of the much needed changes.

In Solidarity

Dan Sidsworth

Unclassified C.O. Rally

The Unclassified C.O. group has asked for me to pass the message along to all institutional locals, the Corrections Bargaining team and the EBM’s, that there is going to be a short rally at the Ontario Correctional College (Bell Cairn) on Friday September 26, 2008. Start time is at 1030. This location and date were chosen as the next class of newly trained unclassifieds are graduating on this day. Please share with your members. If no one from your local is able to attend please send your words of support and I will pass them along to the rally.

The purpose of the rally is to bring awareness and support to their unique issues. They are a growing group of officers who have been struggling to obtain full - time positions for far too many years. Come out and show your support.

In solidarity
Dan Sidsworth

End of Summer

Well it’s been a busy summer all around. I will be getting back in the grove having taken some time off for the arrival two additional packages on the home front. The count keeps going up, even at home!

The next few months will be very busy with Bargaining starting in November; The Corrections NUGPE conference in Ottawa with the Peace Officers Memorial; The Regional Labour Relations Forums will be rolled out this fall.

Over the summer the biggest issue at the MERC table was the Y.O. Disentanglement project. This is the removal of the Y.O. units from the adult institutions and involved both MERC chairs from Y.O. and Adult. The goal is to minimize the impact on all staff and the protection of jobs first. The locals impacted are Kenora, HWDC, OCDC, TBCC, as well as all of the youth facilities. The last briefing of impacted members will take place this week in Kenora.

The biggest news right now is the OPS bargaining unit changes. The changes will have significant impact on the OPS as well as the reconfiguration of the Corrections Division to a Correctional Facilities Division. The two MERC teams that make up the Corrections Bargaining unit and the Bargaining team were not consulted or informed of these negotiations and we know little of what is on the table. The Executive Board members will be briefed first this Wednesday, followed by the Bargaining teams on Thursday. The two corrections division MERC chairs will be briefed on the impact on our corrections bargaining unit and we will then communicate with the division. We have many questions as to how this will impact the members and the bargaining team. Stay tuned.

In Solidarity

Dan Sidsworth