Correctional Officers Deserve Justice Too
Jan 03, 2008
After many months of back and forth bargaining between the MGEU and the Province of Manitoba, it was determined not long ago that dates for the Corrections interest arbitration case would be heard beginning this past December. Corrections workers had soundly rejected the Province’s last contract offer several months previous to this, opting once again to go the route of arbitration. In all, negotiations between the MGEU and the Province concerning the Corrections sub-component had been going on for over two years.
However, just as the arbitration was to commence in December, lawyers from the Province informed the MGEU that they were using a technical legal maneuver to delay the start of the proceedings and thereby the agreement on a contract for Manitoba’s 1,100 Corrections Officers.
The main outstanding issues involve pensions and open competitions. Correctional Officers are asking that their pensions be in line with others working in dangerous occupations, and they want the right to be notified of job openings in Manitoba Justice the same way that other Provincial civil servants are. However, the Government is claiming that they cannot discuss these issues at arbitration because there are “constitutional issues” that must be dealt with first, and would therefore necessitate involving the Attorneys General of Manitoba and Canada.
The government’s position that these issues cannot be the subject of collective bargaining flies in the face of past practice. These types of issues have been the subject of collective bargaining for years. To claim all of a sudden that they are out of bounds is an affront to Corrections workers that have waited patiently for a new collective agreement. It needs to be remembered that these Correctional employees gave up the right to strike a number of years ago in exchange for binding arbitration, which they are attempting to undertake now. They did this with the assurance that the Province would proceed to arbitrations in a timely manner. Pulling a stunt like this at the last minute very much violates the spirit of that agreement.
As a result of the Province’s most recent delay tactics, Manitoba’s Correctional Officers will be holding an information picket commencing at noon on Friday, January 4. All participating Corrections employees are being asked to meet at the Winnipeg Convention Centre at 11:00 am. A procession will move from there to the Manitoba Legislature.
Further information can be found on the MGEU website at www.mgeu.mb.ca.
Comments
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the ndp do not care about us. i am not voting for them again. they are like conservatives
alex - 2008-01-05 18:44
I seem to be having technical trouble getting the site to accept my posting. My apologies if this ends up being a duplicate post. Consider what federal civil servants have been able to obtain in negotiations with successive Liberal and Conservative federal governments. Then compare that to the results of the MGEU bargaining with our NDP and Conservative provincial governments. Clearly having NDP governments in power provincially, and consistently supporting the NDP, has not helped the MGEU members get better treatment for MGEU members. Look at the terrible treatment of our Corrections officers, with the leader of our union defending an NDP cabinet minister from criticism by MGEU members: http://www.winnipegsun.com/News/Columnists/Brodbeck_Tom/2008/01/05/4753911.html Would the cabinet minister have gotten a “free ride” from our union’s president if he’d been a Conservative? Look at the outplacement of information technology jobs the NDP has planned for Manitoba Health MGEU members and RHA IT staff (e-Health). Jobs constructing and maintaining the systems for storing and accessing the confidential health records of Manitobans are apparently to be handed over to US based multinational EDS, with the work to be done by EDS employees and subcontractors. By consistently supporting the NDP in provincial elections, the MGEU declared itself an enemy of the Conservative Party, so the Conservatives doesn’t do us any favors. And by consistently supporting the NDP in elections, the MGEU has gotten itself taken for granted, so the NDP doesn’t do us any favors. Our union needs to lobby government hard, no matter which party is in power. We need a union whose elected officials and paid employees will put their loyalty to the MGEU ahead of their loyalty to any political party they happen to be members of.
Keith - 2008-01-05 20:19
From the January 5, 2007, Winnipeg Sun: A conflict of interests By TOM BRODBECK t looks like MGEU president Peter Olfert didn't like his own members heckling his NDP buddy, Justice Minister Dave Chomiak, at yesterday's jail guard demonstration. I was standing behind Olfert and Chomiak at the top of the Manitoba Legislature stairs when Chomiak was addressing a hostile group of corrections officers. Like most demonstrations, the minister in charge usually gets an earful from the crowd. And yesterday's protest was no different. "We want justice," the officers chanted at Chomiak. Normally, the union boss joins in, showing solidarity with his members. Not yesterday. An annoyed-looking Olfert was actually trying to quiet down the crowd, waving his arms in an up-and-down motion. Guess he thought the crowd was being disrespectful to his buddy. Never seen that at a union rally before. Whose side is this guy on, anyway? What it underscores is the dangers of unions supporting political parties. I've always felt unions should remain politically neutral so they can focus on fighting for their members, no matter which party is in government. The Manitoba Government Employees Union supports the New Democratic Party. They don't say it publicly. But MGEU officials work for the party during elections and support them at party conventions. The union even publishes NDP news releases on their website. The problem with that is it creates a conflict between the interests of members and the interests of their political party, namely the NDP. There was a symbolic example of that on the steps of the Legislature yesterday. Corrections officers are being treated like crap by this government. The Doer government has been dragging its feet on contract talks with them for two years. And even though guards gave up the right to strike several years ago in favour of binding arbitration, the province is trying to block an arbitrator from ruling on guards' pension plans. Government is also refusing to deal with some of the worst overcrowding the province has ever seen at provincial jails and the Winnipeg Remand Centre, some of which are powder kegs ready to blow. According to Justice Department numbers, the province's adult inmate population stood at 1,552 yesterday. The system is designed to hold 1,242 inmates. Which means combined, provincial jails and the Remand Centre were 310 inmates over capacity. They used to talk about double bunking inmates. Now they're triple bunking some. These places are busting at the seams with more gang members and more violent criminals than ever before. Despite that, guards say they're having difficulty getting basic equipment at times, including handcuffs. If the Tories were in power and this were happening, you can bet your bottom dollar Olfert would be leading the chants on the steps of the Legislature (as he should be), not trying to mute his own members. What I find amazing is how easily the province can find money for things like David Asper's dream football stadium, the wonderful Spirited Energy campaign and a chronically bloated health-care bureaucracy, but they can't wrap up a contract with folks who have one of the toughest and most dangerous jobs around. It's despicable, really.
keith - 2008-01-05 20:21