OPSEU tells McGuinty to stop destroying corrections

Warren (Smokey) Thomas calls on the province to come up with a joint plan to deal with overcrowding, safety and other issues affecting front-line workers.

Ottawa (28 May 2010) - Correctional employees from across Ontario will converge at a Liberal fundraiser Thursday in Ottawa to protest McGuinty government policies and decisons that the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU/NUPGE) says are destroying labour relations in correctional services.

The workers, who are represented by OPSEU, will hold a public demonstration at 4:30 p.m. outside the Crown Plaza Hotel (101 Lyon St.) to drive home their complaints to the premier and his Liberal government.

OPSEU president Warren (Smokey) Thomas wants the McGuinty government to come up with a joint plan to deal with overcrowding, safety and other issues affecting the health of staff on the front lines.

“Representatives in the corrections ministry appear to have little interest in addressing the concerns of the people who actually run corrections on a day-to-day basis. We want to work co-operatively and come up with solutions to the current problems,” Thomas says.

Eddy Almeida, chair of OPSEU's corrections division, says that the situation is reaching a breaking point.

“For years, the ministry has been packing more and more inmates into too little space and expecting the staff to cope with the extra work it takes to deal with this,” Almeida says.

“Further, they have been enacting policies aimed at making it harder for staff to get time away from this stressful environment. This has to stop and the premier must take the lead.”

NUPGE

The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) is one of Canada's largest labour organizations with over 340,000 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