Image: UCCO / Unionized correctional workers appear at a rally earlier this year. The federal government says it has reached a tentative labour deal with the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers (UCCO-SACC-CSN) covering approximately 7,000 employees across the country.

By Mike Vanden Bosch

Tentative labour deal

Federal govt. agrees to tentative labour deal with correctional officers

Dec 10, 2024 | 8:39 AM

CHILLIWACK — The federal government says it has reached a tentative labour deal with the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers (UCCO-SACC-CSN) covering approximately 7,000 employees across the country.

According to a statement Tuesday (Dec. 10) from the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, the four-year renewed collective agreement, if ratified by members, provides wage enhancements and other benefits for employees and will expire on May 31, 2026.

The government says it cannot divulge further details of the tentative agreement “out of respect for the ratification process.”

If the tentative agreement is approved by correctional union workers, the government will have reached agreement with 23 bargaining units covering more than 99 per cent of the core federal public service.

The labour pact would apply to hundreds of Fraser Valley correctional officers and related staff, as there are multiple federal prisons in the Fraser Valley. They consist of Mountain Institution and Kent Institution west of Agassiz, Mission Institution in Mission, Kwìkwèxwelhp Healing Village in Harrison Mills, and Pacific Institution, Matsqui Institution and Fraser Valley Institution in Abbotsford.

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In October 2024, hundreds of Canadian correctional officers from across Canada, including some here in the Fraser Valley, rallied simultaneously to demonstrate their displeasure with the state of bargaining talks with the federal government.

According to a news release dated October 23 from the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers, which represents more than 7,500 members working in federal institutions across Canada, union members assembled in front of the regional headquarters of Correctional Services Canada (CSC) to voice their demands “loud and clear.”

The union says despite some degree of progress at the bargaining table, it argues CSC continues to ignore the working conditions of federal correctional officers.

“It’s understandable that the public does not know the extent of our work. But it is unacceptable when it is your own employer who shows a complete lack of understanding of our working conditions and the reality of working in a federal penitentiary” said Jeffrey Wilkins, National President of UCCO-SACC–CSN. “Our employer behaves as if we are just like any other federal public employees. Yet, no other public sector employee has a workplace so inherently violent. We work behind walls. We work with some of Canada’s most dangerous individuals. We must work to maintain the peace, rehabilitate, and protect inmates, as well as provide protection to the public.”

The union says CSC has offered a 12.5 per cent salary increase over four years, but without critical danger allowance or COVID-19 hazard pay. It also says CSC seems bent on reconfiguring the work schedules of correctional officers, ushering in a poor work-life balance.

“Furthermore, the employer seems to be very determined to restructure the schedules of correctional officers resulting in our members having to work more days throughout the year,” said Wilkins. “This is precisely why we continue to call on our members to show our collective strength and support for the bargaining committee. We will continue to escalate the pressure on our employer until we have a contract that is fair and representative of our unique reality.”