You are here: Home > OPS > Ministry >January 18,  2002  LockTalk

January 18, 2002

P&P grievances on fast track

David Kerr, probation and parole representative of the OPSEU Corrections Ministry Employee Relations Committee, sent the following letter to all probation and parole staff on Mon., Jan. 14:

On Tuesday, January 8th several OPSEU representatives met with the employer to discuss issues surrounding the Enough is Enough website, the accompanying Rap Sheet and most importantly one of the concerns of the membership that has created this situation -workload!

At the end of the first day there was an agreement to fast track all grievances that have or are being filed as a result of action taken by the employer around the use of email and the accessing of the web. While it is extremely important to follow the Collective Agreement with respect to the grievances, it should not be necessary to grant any delays of time limits at this stage. If the grievance is not satisfactorily resolved after Step 2, please forward the grievance, along with all written correspondence, to the Grievance Department at Head Office.

Please also send a photocopy of your grievance, even before you have your Step 2, to Eric O’Brien at Fax Number: 416-443-8618. Brother O'Brien is the Grievance Officer that will be coordinating the issues / grievances going to the Board. Please clearly mark the grievance as a “COPY”.

The parties have agreed to meet again before we appear at the Board to begin the hearings.

On the issue of workload, we met with the employer on Monday, January 14th to discuss and share concerns around workload issues in probation and parole offices and to establish a framework to identify opportunities for improvement and next steps.

Lastly, as a reminder, please ensure any comments on the Rap Sheet remain respectful of both the letter and the spirit of the Human Rights Code. There are also obligations under the Public Service Act that you need to be aware of. OPSEU continues to support the systemic change program, which is intended to make our workplaces a better place to be.

Information will be provided as it becomes available. Please forward any information that you feel we should have with respect to the above. I can be contacted at dkerr@odyssey.on.ca  or at 519-852-3285.

“The Assistant Deputy Minister’s response to this issue in a memo written to all staff on Jan. 15 seems to imply that probation and parole staff are in violation of the rules,” Kerr said. “We state emphatically that we disagree with that implication.”

It is worthy to note that the employer has begun to retract some of the letters of counsel given to members who are participating in the campaign.

MTC on the brink of losing another facility

Residents of Eagle Mountain, California are worried that their rural community will become a ghost town.

A proposed government budget released earlier this month includes no money for the town’s sole industry, the Eagle Mountain Community Correctional Facility. Management and Training Corporation, the same company operating the superjail in Penetanguishene, operates the Eagle Mountain facility. The prison will transfer 400 inmates and close June 30 unless it wins a reprieve.

“The facility really is the town,” said Linda Gubman, who doubles as superintendent of Desert Center Unified School District and principal of its only school in Eagle Mountain. “And if we don’t have the town, what else stays open?”

The minimum-security facility has become expendable because of California’s declining prison population. But cutting funds to Eagle Mountain would have a devastating economic effect on the sparsely populated Chuckawalla Valley area 60 miles east of Indio, residents said.

The nearly 100 prison employees and their families make up most, if not all, of Eagle Mountain’s population of 250. At least half the 50 pupils in the Eagle Mountain elementary school would leave if their parents relocate, Gubman said, and that could doom the school. It would force the remaining Kindergarten to Grade 8 pupils from outlying areas to make a three-hour, 180-mile round trip to get to class.

Last June, Utah-based MTC lost the only facility under their control in that state.

For campaign information, call Don Ford (ext. 442) at 1-800-268-7376 or (416) 443-8888.

e-mail: dford@opseu.org

Ontario Public Service Employees Union
100 Lesmill Road, Toronto, Ontario M3B 3P8
www.opseu.org

Original authorized for distribution by Leah Casselman, president.

Ontario Public Service Employees Union, 100 Lesmill Rd. Toronto, ON M3B 3P8  (416) 443-8888  www.opseu.org