The union representing 6,000 Ontario correctional workers says it has reached an agreement to settle all outstanding issues in contract talks with the province.
The deal was reached around 5:30 a.m., Ontario Public Service Employees Union President Smokey Thomas told CP24 in a phone interview Saturday.
Thomas said he expects most members will be satisfied with the deal.
“All their (workers) major concerns were addressed and the government got its major concerns addressed,” he said.
As part of the deal, correctional workers will become an essential service, meaning that they will not have the right to strike in future negotiations. Instead, contract issues will be revised through binding third-party arbitration.
“The beauty of that for the people of Ontario is that we won’t be in this situation ever again,” Thomas said.
A hiring freeze for correctional workers will also be lifted as part of the deal. However ongoing conditions inside prisons are not being addressed as part of the deal.
Thomas said the negotiating framework does not require union members to vote on the deal.
Correctional workers have been without a deal since Dec. 2014 and would have been in a legal strike position at 12:01 a.m. on Sunday.
Thomas said the challenge in the next few days will be to “normalize” the prisons once again following preparations for a previously anticipated strike.
