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February 11, 2004

Essential Services negotiations continue

The Central/Unified Bargaining Team continues the task of negotiating and finalizing essential services agreements. Long hours, late nights and many meetings with both the assigned Mediator/Arbitrators and the employer are becoming the norm, as the teams try to complete the essential service agreements. The team has had to either file bad faith bargaining charges or take the employer to the Labour Board to rule on disputes relating to essential services.

The employer is holding on to their position of increasing the numbers from last round in the worksites should there be a labour dispute. The team is rigorously fighting this argument and standing by its position: “It is not business as usual.” Although this continues to be a slow and arduous process, the team is doing whatever it takes to conclude this phase of bargaining and begin the task of achieving their real goal … negotiating the best possible collective agreement for our members.

Where are the Ontario Liberals going with privately-operated jails and youth centers?

When the Liberals were in opposition it seemed fairly clear where they stood on the issue of privately-operated jails and youth facilities in Ontario. In a Nov. 1999 Toronto Star article, then opposition leader Dalton McGuinty said that, “Other jurisdictions have discovered that it costs more in the long run, to say nothing of the fact that, just as a matter of principle, I don’t think we should allow the private sector to earn a dollar because of citizens having been deprived of their liberty.”

Also, while in opposition, the Liberals committed to sending the American operators of the Central North Correctional Centre (CNCC) in Penetanguishene back to Utah as soon as possible. Definitely, they said, the contract with the Americans would not be extended beyond 2006. Liberal government actions, since their election, would now appear to moving the government toward more privatization of provincial jails.

Monte Kwinter, businessman and Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services (MCSCS), has attacked public Correctional Officers and their performance on a number of occasions. At the same time, Monte Kwinter has ignored deaths, injuries and staffing crises at the privately-operated CNCC. Now, contrary to their promises, Mr. Kwinter wants to “compare” CNCC with publicly-operated Central East Correctional Centre (CECC) in Lindsay. In addition, Mr. Kwinter has not released the terms of the contract with the CNCC American operators, has not released the monitors’ reports and has not addressed serious operational and safety issues at CNCC; all promised by the Liberals while in opposition. Mr. Kwinter has been allowing Liberal governments from British Columbia and Quebec to tour the private facility in an apparent attempt to sell and spread the private jail concept to those other provinces.

Further, the Liberal government has not delivered on a promise it made to restore “successor rights” to Crown employees. The Tories had taken away successor rights in 1995 to pave the way for massive privatization and divestment of the Ontario Public Services. Clearly, by not implementing its promise to restore these rights, it remains easy for the government to continue to privatize the Ontario Public Service.

Recently, information has surfaced regarding a committee of Liberal MPPs which includes four cabinet ministers: Sandra Pupatello, Gerard Kennedy, Madeline Meilleur and Chris Bentley. This committee is looking at eliminating whole ministries by integrating them with other ministries, or by transferring what they do to the private sector, or by downloading or uploading to municipal or federal governments.

Perhaps the most direct evidence of where the Liberal government is going is contained in their opening proposals around job security and integrity of our work. The government has demanded:

a) non-OPS workers to be allowed to work in OPS workplaces (easy to privatize parts of workplaces first);

b) take-away of enhanced severance (cheaper to privatize);

c) elimination of termination pay (cheaper to privatize);

d) in place/workforce adjustment redeployment, exit payment, displacement, retraining (cheaper and easier to privatize).

How far might the Liberals go down the Tory prison privatization path? Tory plans revealed in 1999 were to begin privatization with one of the so-called “super jails” (which ended up being CNCC) and then privatizing next the other two (Central East and Maplehurst). In addition, earlier Tory plans called for one of the Toronto facilities to be privatized as well as one or two smaller facilities elsewhere in the province.

With respect to Youth Justice Services, the Tories made no secret of the fact that they felt the whole system should be handed over to the private sector. Despite repeated inquiries on this issue, the Liberals have refused to rule out this option.

Over the next few months, we will need to let the government know that further privatization is out, and that we hold them to their promise to return CNCC to public operation.

The wait continues

The Corrections Bargaining Team and legal staff made their presentation regarding essential service levels to Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) on Monday, Feb. 7. The Chair of the OLRB, Kevin Whitaker, will make his ruling any day now.

Hide-a-manager program (HAMP)

Do you have a manager who has been sent to you for no apparent reason? Do they have no responsibilities? Have they been sent to your workplace for training in your job?

Please e-mail your teams and forward any information you may have if you find a “hide-a-manager”!

Do not use government e-mail!

Your bargaining teams welcome your e-mails, however; do not use your government e-mail to send us information. We will not respond to a government e-mail address, as we do not want the employer to give you a hard time!

If you want a response, please use your home e-mail address. Thank you for your support.

The Sunshine Club – fifth edition

The Sunshine Club is the list of public service managers who earn over $100,000 per year. Here are the names for our fifth edition:

			(Strike Year)	(Non-Strike Year)
Name	Ministry	Current Position	2002 Salary	2003 Salary
Douglas Westlake	Ministry of Attorney General	Manager, Court Operations	$114,769	Under 100k
Diana Mancini	Ministry of Agriculture & Food	Human Resources Consultant	$105,771	Under 100k
Tammy Browes-Bugden	Management Board of Cabinet	Corporate Lead, Contingency Planning	$117,783	Under 100k
Catherine Hiuser	Ministry of Attorney General	Court Services Manager	$114,240	Under 100k
Timothy Chandler	Ministry of Finance	Senior Project Manager, Oshawa	$158,361	Under 100k

 

 

 

In Corrections:

		(Strike Year)	(Non-Strike Year)
Name	Current Position	2002 Salary	2003 Salary
Gordon (Rick) Wood	Superintendent, Algoma Treatment and Remand Centre	$177,675	Under 100k
Lyne Lalonde	Area Manager, Ottawa East Probation and Parole	$117,429	Under 100k
Mark Parisotto	A/Deputy Superintendent of Administration, Maplehurst Complex	$139,661	Under 100k
Frank Gatto	Area Manager, Superior North Probation and Parole	$100,122	Under 100k
Randy Denis	A/Deputy – Special Projects, St. Lawrence Valley Treatment Centre	$141,744	Under 100k

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This week’s team member profiles

Moira Cowan

Moira is the Unclassified Representative on the Central/Unified Bargaining Team. She is active in the union and is currently a steward in Local 108. Moira has dedicated much of her time standing up for the unclassified members’ rights and their entitlements.

Moira is on the editorial committee of The Source and also edits her local newsletter – Off the Cuff.

Moira is a Correctional Officer at the Elgin Middlesex Detention Centre in London. She looks forward to obtaining a collective agreement that all members, including the unclassified workers, deserve.

Ken Fraser

Ken is a member of the housekeeping staff at the Penetanguishene Mental Health Centre. He been an active member in the union for the past 18 years and is currently the Vice-President of Local 329

Ken was elected by the Technical/Operational and Maintenance category to represent them at the Central Bargaining Team. Ken brings his past bargaining team experience to this round and looks forward to fighting for a contract the members deserve and can be proud of.

Your OPSEU OPS bargaining teams

Central/Unified team:

Marg Simmons (Chair), Central Enforcement and Renewal Committee

Linda Thibert, OPSEU Region 1

Doug Peebles, Region 2

Kathleen Demareski, Region 3

Rhéal Delaquis, Region 4

Paul Myers, Region 5

Eric Morin (Vice-Chair), Region 6

John Watson, Region 7

Bob Houston, Administrative category

Brian Chauvin, Corrections

Carl Thibodeau, Institutional & Health Care

Sandra Noad, Office Administration

Beth Anich, Office Administration

Ken Fraser, Technical/Operational & Maintenance

Moira Cowan, Unclassified members

centralubu@bellnet.ca 

unclassified@bellnet.ca 

Corrections team:

Jack Hopkins, OPSEU Region 1

Barry Scanlon (Chair), Region 2

Glenna Caldwell, Region 3

Robert Curran (Vice-Chair), Region 4

Dave Graves, Region 5

Joe Wright, Region 6

Len Mason, Region 7

corrections@bellnet.ca 

The Source is your only accurate source of Central and Corrections bargaining team information. Do not rely on gossip and rumours. We will provide the facts. Your editors are Len Mason, Beth Anich and Moira Cowan. The Source is authorized for distribution by Barry Scanlon, chair, Corrections Team, Marg Simmons, chair, Central Bargaining Team and Leah Casselman, president.

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