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BCGEU leaders meet with Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General

“We will be looking for opportunities to move these issues forward and to work with the Minister and ministry staff to make these important improvements." — Stephanie Smith, BCGEU President

Vancouver (05 April 2016) — On March 31, Stephanie Smith, President of the B.C. Government and Service Employees' Union (BCGEU/NUPGE) met with Mike Morris, Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General. Others from BCGEU/NUPGE attending the meeting were Dean Purdy, Vice-President, Corrections and Sheriff Services, Doug Kinna, Vice-President, Social, Information and Health, Lori Joaquin, Vice-President and Maria MeIddlemiss, Vice-Chari of Administrative Services. Minister Morris was accompanied by his senior staff.

Key issues in Corrections put to new minister of public safety and solicitor general

At the meeting BCGEU/NUPGE leaders raised a number of key issues with the Minister, including

  • the significant increase in violent assaults in B.C.’s provincial prisons
  • opening the remaining closed living units in the prisons
  • low scores in Workplace Environmental Survey for Community Corrections also reflected in a recent BCGEU internal survey of these members
  • the backlog processing immediate roadside prohibitions at RoadSafetyBC
  • the time and leave management system at BC Corrections which is delaying the payment of wages to staff.

“This meeting gave us the opportunity to meet with the new minister and raise important concerns of many of our frontline members,” said Stephanie Smith, BCGEU President. “We offered the Minister concrete suggestions on how we can improve the working conditions for our members and at the same time improve the delivery of public services.”

“We will be looking for opportunities to move these issues forward and to work with the Minister and ministry staff to make these important improvements,” said Smith. 

NUPGE 

The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) is one of Canada's largest labour organizations with over 360,000 members. Our mission is to improve the lives of working families and to build a stronger Canada by ensuring our common wealth is used for the common good. NUPGE