240 days after signing a collective agreement - Federal correctional officers present their demands to Correctional Service Canada and the Treasury Board

MONTREAL, July 3rd, 2014 /CNW Telbec/ - Today, federal correctional officers from coast-to-coast organized tailgate parties in front of each of the 50 federal penitentiary institutions to kick-off their next round of negotiations with Correctional Service Canada (CSC) and the Treasury Board. The 7,500 members of the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers (UCCO-SACC–CSN) gathered together to remind the CSC and Treasury Board that only 240 days have passed since their last collective agreement was signed and that they are united and determined in order to improve their working conditions. Recall that it was the Treasury Board who insisted on a short-term collective agreement.

« Today, our unity is the key to obtaining better working conditions. From the Pacific to the Atlantic, correctional officers support their negotiation team and are mobilized to make sure that CSC and Treasury Board clearly hear their demands », states Kevin Grabowsky at the outset, president of UCCO-SACC–CSN.

The negotiation team has presented the union's demands, adopted during a tour of general assemblies this spring, to the employer. These demands include: a salary increase of 8.1% over the next three years; armed inmate escorts from multi-level, medium and maximum institutions; the inclusion of instructors in UCCO-SACC–CSN's bargaining unit; the right to meals and meal breaks whether the officers are on escort or on overtime; the increase of an allowance based on seniority; and, finally, improved annual leave accumulation and increases to various premiums.

« Being a correctional officer is not only a job, it's a calling. Our members are proud to contribute to Canadian public safety », concludes Kevin Grabowsky. « However, if it wasn't for our members' determination to obtain proper tools and working conditions in the last two rounds of negotiations, the very notion of prison safety would have been irrelevant.  Correctional officers wouldn't even have secured their own safety given the present government "tough on crime" agenda as the overcrowding and rise in violence incidents against correctional officers increases».

About UCCO-SACC–CSN
The Union of Canadian Correctional Officers - Syndicat des agents correctionnels du Canada - CSN (UCCO-SACC-CSN), was founded in Montréal, Québec, on January 19, 1999. The union represents all correctional officers (CX1, CX2) working in fifty federal institutions across Canada. The union is affiliated with the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN), representing almost 2,000 unions and more than 325,000 workers on a sectoral or professional basis.

SOURCE: UNION OF CANADIAN CORRECTIONAL OFFICERS (UCCO-SACC-CSN)

Philippe Leclerc, Communications Advisor, CSN, Cell: 514-216-9097, [email protected]