FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 10, 2001
Locked out correctional
workers to protest at Kennedy House head office
SCARBOROUGH - Leah Casselman, president
of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union and Ethel LaValley,
vice-president of the Ontario Federation of Labour, will join members of
Local 361 at a demonstration at the Kennedy House corporate office in
Scarborough.
Date: Monday, August 13, 2001
Time: 10 a.m.
Place: Kennedy House, 10 Milner Business Court, Scarborough
Unionized correctional staff at Kennedy
House, a government funded non-profit agency, were locked out by the
employer on Sat., June 23 when contract talks came to an impasse.
Members are frustrated that the employer is unwilling to re-enter
meaningful negotiations and want an end to the dispute that is entering
its eighth week.
“Obviously, this employer is trying to
starve these members into accepting an inferior contract that will also
jeopardize worker health and safety,” Casselman said. “The
concessions that this employer is asking for are utterly ridiculous.”
The number and type of concessions that
the employer is demanding astounds Casselman. Included in the list of
employer concessions are: elimination of top-up pay for
pregnancy/parental leave; no seniority rights for laid-off workers; no
wage increase for four years; the elimination of all current health and
safety language; mandatory employee training without pay; no prior
notice for changes to work schedules or shifts; overtime pay only after
working in excess of 176 hours over four weeks; elimination of banked
sick credits; reduction and elimination of workplace accommodation
language for sick or injured workers; and refusal to give employees a
pension plan.
Casselman promises a loud and vigorous
protest on Monday. “It’s time this company feels the heat of this
dispute right on their own doorstep,” Casselman said. “These members
perform an invaluable public service, and we will not allow them to be
treated like this. We are going to send a strong message to this
employer. They will have no choice but to hear it.”
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For more information, please contact:
Charlie Bryans, President, Local 361
(905) 649-0135
Pat Schillemore, Staff Representative (905) 433-7179
Don Ford, OPSEU Communications (416) 788-9104
