THUNDER BAY — Corrections workers across various agencies in the city of Thunder Bay have been without a contract for two years but union leaders are hopeful a deal will be reached soon with arbitration is set to begin.
“We finally have our arbitration dates and this weekend we are moving into that phase and hoping to get an arbitrated decision sooner rather than later,” said Shawn Bradshaw, president of OPSEU Local 708 with the Thunder Bay Correctional Centre.
OPSEU represents approximately 400 workers at various agencies in the city, including the Thunder Bay District Jail and the Thunder Bay Correctional Centre.
According to Bradshaw, the biggest sticking point in negotiations has been wage increases, which he says have not kept up with inflation or cost of living increases.
“It’s frustrating when the employer is coming back at us with wage increases that are not keeping even close to inflation,” he said. “It also doesn’t help the bills the Ford government put forward that were struck down that would have capped any increases to public sector employees. Based on inflation, those numbers are not realistic. We need to keep up with that cost of living.”
Bradshaw added that correction officers are at the lower end of law enforcement pay in the province and, in this region, correctional facilities have to compete with other agencies like police services and border services.
“We need a competitive wage structure so we can recruit and retain decent officers and decent staff across the board,” he said.
Corrections staff are considered essential workers and cannot take any strike action based on an agreement reached with the province.
“We are in the process now where if we don’t agree at the table, we move to binding arbitration,” Bradshaw said. “Since we did not see much movement from the employer at the table, not a lot of respect coming that way, we pushed it to arbitration, which will be this Saturday and Sunday.”
The bargaining team will meet with the arbitrator, who will then meet with the employer. If an agreement cannot be reached, the arbitrator will issue a ruling on a contract at a later date.
