Below is an article from the Toronto Sun today.  Please read, as this is important to us all.

Inmates at Ontario jails and correctional centres will be vaccinated for the swine flu Monday, while the guards protecting them have been told their clinics have been cancelled, the Sun has learned.

"This puts us at risk," says Matthew Duffy, an officer at the Toronto West Detention Centre who's a shop steward for OPSEU Local 517 and a "wellness" representative.

"They've told us they are holding a clinic for the inmates Monday, Nov. 1, but not one for us? It's ridiculous," he said yesterday.

The decision to take care of the health concerns of the inmates and not the officers is "insulting," Duffy said.

'POOR TURNOUT'

To suggest the clinics were cancelled because "there was poor turnout" in other years is ludicrous, he said.

"I mean this year there's a pandemic, isn't there?" Duffy said. "It's a little different."

And to add insult to injury, he said, the guards will be part of the security for the clinic.

"They want us to help put the clinic on and we're not getting the vaccine?" said Duffy, a 23-year veteran. "We have pregnant women on the job. It's not right."

The correctional services ministry couldn't be reached for comment last night.

MEMO

A memo sent to staff said the decision to not give flu shots to staff was based on poor turnout in other years.

"While inmates will be vaccinated at all institutions, the decision was made to not hold staff vaccination clinics at institutions this year due to the small uptake by staff in previous years," says the memorandum from Loretta Eley, of the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services.

Also, a memo from Nancy Ogden, a nurse adviser in the ministry states: "Over the last three years of collecting data on our flu clinics, it was identified that in the majority of facilities that conducted flu clinics the employee turnout was poor and some cited this as 'disappointing,' not cost effective, etc."

Lock Talk

A publication of the OPSEU Corrections Division
June 3, 2009

In an effort to improve labour relations, the employer and union met and have agreed to work more cooperatively toward solving issues that have been plaguing Corrections for a number of months.

To that end, the union has signed an agreement that will allow all locals to rescind all notices recently served to their local superintendents, and we encourage them to do so.

The employer has also agreed to accept the locals’ intent to rescind their notices of withdrawal from Compressed Work Week Agreements.
Members are encouraged to make themselves reasonably available for HPRO and participate in all activities within their workplaces, including acting assignments. Management has assured us that they will be looking into all management vacancies with intent to fill all vacant positions.

The MERC has also agreed to a Terms of Reference with respect to a Security Provisions and Inmate Population Management Committee. This committee is being formed to make recommendations concerning current security provisions at provincial correctional facilities and the management of inmate populations within those institutions.

Corrections MERC Chair Eddy Almeida is “cautiously optimistic” that the Division can move forward on its concerns.

“We have agreed with the employer that it is in everyone’s best interest to try to normalize labour relations in Corrections,” Almeida said. “However, it takes two parties to make this work. We will certainly do our part.”

The weather provided a suitable backdrop that mirrored the treatment of the Corrections Division both during negotiations and following the contract ratification.

Dozens of hardy members from both the community and institutions attended the event to bring attention to the deplorable working conditions and lack of human and financial resources that exist at the ground level of Corrections in Ontario.

While members were peacefully demonstrating on the information picket line, Brothers Gord Longhi and Eduardo Almeida were able to conduct an inside lobby of the actual event.

Given that this was the Premier’s fundraiser, there were many MPPs on site. Gord and Eddy had the opportunity to address a number of Ottawa and area MPPs and explain that although the Corrections Division may have a contract, significant steps would still be necessary to get labour relations back to some semblance of stability.

Brothers Longhi and Almeida had an opportunity to spend a few moments with the busy Premier and explained to him that neither he nor his ministers are being given all the facts about what is happening in the correctional institutions and community offices. McGuinty was told that his senior management group is so disconnected with what is happening on the shop floors, that when they report on issues they give finely filtered information to suit their own needs, not the needs of the actual ministry or what would best suit community safety.

Although the time was brief, Premier McGuinty was advised that senior bureaucrats within MCSCS have violated signed agreements and retracted verbal promises on such a scale that signed documents are now seemingly not worth the paper they are written on. “So what’s next?” we asked. “Tear up the collective agreement?”

The Premier thanked OPSEU for supporting his fundraiser and asked for a summary of what is happening in Corrections so he can review our concerns. McGuinty wants to know what the workers are seeing as issues on the front lines from both community and institutions.

We ask that members forward their thoughts to their local executives and the MERC Chair.

We also informed the Premier that we would provide a synopsis for him and all the MPPs as the issue was relevant to almost every community and constituency in Ontario. We look forward to speaking with the Premier and Liberal MPPs once again throughout the summer.

OPSEU to McGuinty: Stop destroying Corrections

OTTAWA – Corrections members from across Ontario will converge in Ottawa tomorrow at a Liberal fundraiser to protest recent actions and inactions by the McGuinty government that are destroying labour relations in Correctional Services.

DATE: May 28, 2009
TIME: 4:30 p.m.
LOCATION: Ontario Liberal Fundraiser
Crown Plaza
101 Lyon Street, Ottawa

OPSEU President Warren (Smokey) Thomas wants the Premier to immediately intercede to come up with a joint plan to deal with overcrowding, safety and issues affecting the health of the staff on the front lines. “Representatives in the Corrections Ministry appear to have little interest in addressing the concerns of the people who actually run Corrections on a day-to-day basis. We want to work co-operatively and come up with solutions to the current problems.”

OPSEU Corrections Division Chair Eddy Almeida says that the situation in Ontario corrections is reaching a breaking point with respect to conditions.

“For years, the Ministry has been packing more and more inmates into too little space, and expecting the staff to cope with the extra work it takes to deal with this,” Almeida said. “Further, they have been enacting policies aimed at making it harder for staff to get time away from this stressful environment. This has to stop, and the Premier must take the lead.”