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March 23, 2001

Relocation settlement signed at last

After months of negotiation, an implementation agreement has finally been reached for members who worked at the Haileybury Jail, Cobourg Jail and L’Orignal Jail.

In the Jan. 26, 2000 Lock Talk, we reported the win at the Grievance Settlement Board. It was then up to the union to negotiate the nuts and bolts of implementing the settlement.

Under the award, L’Orignal correctional officers are entitled to nine (9) full-time positions at Ottawa-Carleton D.C., Haileybury correctional officers are entitled to three (3) positions at Monteith C.C and two (2) positions at North Bay Jail, and Cobourg correctional officers are entitled to two (2) positions at Peterborough Jail, one (1) position at Lindsay Jail and seven (7) positions at Quinte D.C.

The implementation agreement will see all correctional officers who were surplussed at the three jails being given the option (based on seniority) to take one of the available positions at the specific facilities identified. Only the officers who are chosen to fill the slots will be eligible, depending on their specific circumstances, to relocation expenses.

The settlement also provides that no employees at the receiving facilities will be surplussed as a result of this agreement.

Barry Scanlon, chair of the OPSEU Corrections Ministry Employee Relations Committee, is satisfied with the outcome.

“It was difficult to try to make members whole when so many left the Ministry or moved to other places,” Scanlon said. “It was like trying to put a broken egg back in the shell. I believe this settlement is as fair as we could achieve for our members.”

OPSEU will provide a question and answer sheet to the affected members shortly. Copies of the implementation agreement are available from OPSEU Head Office. Contact Mary-Anne DiAdamo at ext. 664.

The threats continue

Well, we long suspected that Norm wasn’t a quick study.

It would appear that bad habits are hard to break, especially when it comes to threatening municipal councils that oppose the Tory vision. Former Corrections Minister Norm Sterling sent a lovely little nasty-gram to the City of St. Thomas for having the audacity to oppose private jails in Ontario.

In the Dec. 22, 2000 letter, Sterling says, “...I can only conclude that your Council, having carefully considered this matter on behalf of your community, has determined that it does not wish to have correctional facilities located within the boundaries of your municipality. Our government can certainly respect that local wish. I will take steps to make your determination of this issue a matter of record, and ensure that no planning for future correctional institutional investments in the City of St. Thomas will occur.”

Nice, Norm. Did anyone at your office share with you what the reactions have been from other councils that got that letter? The letters have been, to put it mildly, not well received.

We’re sure that economic blackmail is not one of the planks on the Tories re-election platform.

Resolution watch

One more step towards the big 200.

The Township of Himsworth South (south of North Bay) has added their support for publicly run correctional services.

This brings the count to 197. The work of the Resolution Warrior, Len Mason of Local 737 (Thunder Bay Jail), continues to pay off big dividends. Just three more, Len!

This would be a good time to remind ALL locals to get it in gear and start lobbying your councils. This should be a province-wide effort, not the solo project of one dedicated activist. Contact Don Ford at Head Office if you require information.

Counter-Spat!
Clear TV victory for anti-privatization

CBC Newsworld’s Monday night telecast of Counterspin at times resembled a loosely controlled street brawl.

Pro and anti-privatization forces met live on camera to debate the planned privatization of Ontario’s jails. There was no doubt by the end of the program who was clearly in the right. And it wasn’t those who favored going private.

MERC chair Barry Scanlon squared off against MPP Bob Wood, parliamentary assistant to Corrections Minister Rob Sampson. Pro and anti-privatization experts from the U.S., appearing via satellite, rounded off the panel.

Wood was rattled early in the telecast as he attempted to parry comments made by Scanlon. However, the Tory party line just didn’t hold up under fire, especially with a studio filled with anti-privatization supporters, including OPSEU president Leah Casselman and First Vice President/Treasurer Len Hupet.

Under questioning, Wood finally admitted that the young offenders sent to Camp Turnaround (the privatized boot camp north of Barrie) were “cherry-picked” from the system. Wood also admitted that there were no statistics to prove whether or not the boot camp has been successful.

But it was Wood’s comments on the effectiveness of the programs at the Ontario Correctional Institute (OCI) that landed him in a minefield. When Scanlon pointed out that OCI was being closed by the Ministry despite winning awards from the American Correctional Association for its exceptional inmate programming, Wood said, “the results at OCI just aren’t there.” When Scanlon asked if the Ministry was planning to return the award, Wood was stumped for an answer.

Wood’s comments, however, have sparked an angry reaction from members of Local 229 (OCI). The following letter was written to Sampson this week from Local 229 president John Hasted:

As the OPSEU Local 229 Union President - representing the Ontario Correctional Institute in Brampton, Ontario -I am writing to express the great shock arising from erroneous statements made by your parliamentary aide, Mr. Bob Wood, on the television program Counterspin which aired on March 19, 2001. These statements demonstrated an utter disregard and lack of understanding and appreciation for the hard work and accomplishments of your Ministry's employees to ensure a safer community.

Of particular concern to the front-line, professional and management staff at the Ontario Correctional Institute were the uninformed and demoralizing statements Mr. Wood made when questioned by Mr. Barry Scanlon of OPSEU about the rationale for closing the well-established and effective OCI treatment facility. Mr. Wood replied, "the results are simply not there" - despite the fact that OCI has clearly demonstrated its effectiveness in reducing recidivism throughout its 25 year history. When challenged further and presented with the fact that OCI recently won a prestigious award from the American Correctional Association for providing the most effective treatment programming in North America, Mr. Wood made further misinformed statements and continued to disregard the meaningfulness of this fact.

While it was clear to those who work at OCI that Mr. Wood was clearly misrepresenting the facts and had no basis for his statements, the viewing public would be left to wonder and mistakenly conclude that there is no effective treatment for the correctional population. This is patently untrue! A simple phone call to OCI's Research Department to obtain research data would have provided extensive evidence of the effectiveness of OCI's programming. As your parliamentary aide and a senior representative of the Ministry of Correctional Services, one would think that Mr. Wood would at least have the integrity to properly prepare himself before the interview in order to get his facts straight. To have done less than prepare himself has resulted in the dissemination of false information, thus disrespecting the already demoralized and under-acknowledged staff of this reputable facility. The staff of OCI feel that they deserve an apology as well as a formal and public retraction of the statements made by Mr. Wood, in order to begin to rectify this situation. As Mr. Wood's supervisor, I am asking you to initiate this process.

Mr. Sampson, it is my understanding that you and many of your Deputy Ministers have toured OCI and have been personally impressed with the quality and effectiveness of the treatment provided to this very needy and difficult client population. It is also my understanding that the documented effectiveness of OCI led to the decision to transfer and expand the program at the new Brockville location. How then can Mr. Wood justify bashing and undermining OCI while the Ministry is concurrently spending many millions of dollars to transfer its valuable programming to another location? Common sense would suggest that millions of taxpayer dollars would not be spent to transfer a useless program. As the Minister responsible for Correctional Services, how can you explain this apparent hypocrisy?

As the Local 229 Union President, it is incumbent upon me to relay the disappointment, anger and frustration felt by the many dedicated staff of OCI who daily work to maintain the effectiveness of this highly praised and respected program, despite severe resource cutbacks and the looming reality of job loss for those who cannot move to Brockville. I hope that you will respond to my request for redress and clarification and ensure that any future public statements regarding OCI accurately and fairly represent the valuable work done to reduce recidivism - thus saving taxpayers money and increasing public safety.

Well said, John. We are all anxious to see how Mr. Sampson replies.

For campaign information, call Don Ford (ext. 442) or Pam Doig (ext. 687) at 1-800-268-7376 or (416) 443-8888.

e-mail: dford@opseu.org or pdoig@opseu.org

.Ontario Public Service Employees Union
100 Lesmill Road, Toronto, Ontario M3B 3P8
www.opseu.org  opseu@opseu.org
Original authorized for distribution by Leah Casselman, president.

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