THUNDER BAY – Although arbitration has granted Ontario’s correctional officers a 4.4 per cent increase this year, local union leaders fear their workmates are still falling behind.
The province signed a three-year agreement with the Ontario Public Service Employees Union on Jan. 10, averting a strike at the eleventh hour and leaving salary concerns to arbitration. The deal deemed its members an essential service, a designation they’d sought since 1979.
OPSEU Local 708 president Shawn Bradshaw, who represents correctional officers at the Thunder Bay Corrections Centre said his co-workers had hoped arbitration would produce a better deal.
“We’re a little disappointed the numbers came back a little lower than we had hoped based on the case we put forward we thought we might get a little bit more but overall, we avoided a strike and we’re into binding arbitration,” he said.
“It’s time to move forward.”
Bradshaw said the arbitrator’s decision to uphold the grid progression freeze was “hard to swallow.” The salary for a new corrections worker in 2015 will be locked in at $50,000 where an OPP constable could reach a $93,000 salary in that same time.
Further, he estimated his workmates’ income has fallen 10 per cent behind those doing comparable jobs under the federal and Manitoban governments, whose unions are both preparing to negotiate their next contracts.
“We’re not catching up. We’re just falling further behind,” he said.
“For the next round of bargaining, we’re going to get further autonomy from the other parts of OPSEU so we should be negotiating the correctional portion completely separate and aside from the pensions and benefits all contained within our collective agreement, as opposed to a shared agreement with other ministries.”
