THUNDER BAY -- Corrections officers could be on strike by the end of the month.
OPSEU Local 737 president Mike Lundy, who represents officers at the Thunder Bay District Jail, said negotiations with the province last weekend didn't end well.
While OPSEU members settled its contract with Ontario, corrections workers voted more than 90 per cent to turn the offer down.
Corrections have been asking since 1979 to be recognized as an essential service, like police and fire, and have binding arbitration. But for now, officers have two-tiered bargaining.
Lundy said the recognize the importance of other Ontario Public Service employees but corrections officers are different.
From wages to health and safety concerns, the province isn't listening. Officers don't want to strike but if they do, which could happen in as little as three weeks, prisons in the province would be operated with a skeleton crew making a bad situation inside even worse.
Lundy said there is an average of three inmate-on-inmate assaults and two officer assaults every day in the province. At the local jail staff are doing everything they can to provide a minimum of service to inmates. Anything beyond meals, medication and court dates isn't likely.
Being told they can't go outside or have visitation raises tension between inmates and officers already Lundy said. If no one's working inside, the situation will only escalate.
"It's going to be a very scary situation for them," he said.
