Correctional officers plan to conduct information pickets on May 31
Federal correctional officers will conduct early-morning information pickets outside each of Correctional Service Canada's 52 penitentiaries on Friday, May 31, to mark the third anniversary that they have been without a valid collective agreement, the union said.
The labour contract covering the 7,500 members of the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers (UCCO-SACC-CSN) expired May 31, 2010.
The union says their workplaces have become “significantly more violent” as inmate population grows and prison closures lead to higher rates of overcrowding.
It says Treasury Board of Canada negotiators “refuse to offer salary raises that would allow correctional officers to keep pace with inflation, much less with raises afforded RCMP officers, a principle enshrined in the last collective agreement signed in 2006.”
The information pickets will begin at 7 a.m. local time at 52 federal penitentiaries operated by Correctional Service Canada.
