Ready to Lead

It's been a long time since I've posted anything. We have seen our hopes for a great arbitration settlement shattered. We have watched the Bargaining team with guidance from OPSEU accept a contract that we rejected, without a vote, all to achieve the arbitration that amounted to nothing. We continue to watch our Institutions become overcrowded and our staffing levels slowly dwindle. We see some staff leaving for better things, burning out, or just plain having enough and leaving.

2016 has been a horrible year for Institutional Corrections. I don't claim to know as much about the community side but I do know from talking to those working there that this year has not been any better for them. They still have workloads they can't keep up to, there is still a huge disconnect on Health and Safety for the Probation and Parole officer working in offices with no security measures. All issues that were not addressed or improved through this round of bargaining.

One thing great I can say about 2016 is that our Locals were united and ready to walk. In my 12 years in Corrections I have never seen the local membership so together, Why do I think that is? I think our local leaders did an amazing job at rallying the troops and sharing what little information they had. The truth is we should have walked, we should have shown this Government that it isn't that easy to run our Institutions and Communities without us. I still feel that opportunity was stolen from us and would have been a huge step to improvements but we can't go back in time, so we need a plan to move forward.

I am also going to say that the CECBA reform group did a good job rallying those that didn't buy in to the OPSEU establishment. I may not have always seen eye to eye with them but members rallied behind them and it brought more people into the conversation on how to change our Division. I believe our Local Presidents do an amazing job for us but there are always those that don't believe in the way things are done and those people found a place to fight and voice their opinions with the CECBA group.

So after all this, after the arbitration decision, the bargaining team taking our right to vote, and the Collective Agreement that states nothing about our own division, where do we go? How do we move forward? Since the decision, it has been very quiet from our division. I am not sure if that is us accepting defeat or just a back to normal protocol of those at the top not sharing information again but something has to change. We can not keep doing things the way we have for the past 30 years and expect different results. Is that not the definition of insanity?

I think OPSEU leaders made a mistake not knowing that an arbitrator would still hold us linked to the Unified when he made his decision. I think it shows that maybe we need a new bargaining process. I think we have all made a slight mistake not keeping the pressure on this employer to make the needed changes to CECBA right now. If we continue to let time pass we will not have the ability to get the changes we need in time. We had a solid united division coming out of the last round and I feel we have let that slip. We need to ramp it up again going into the fall session of Parliament.

Once again our local Presidents are leading the charge, planning a new bargaining conference to decide the proper bargaining procedures going forward. I personally thank those who have stepped up to run this committee, we need change and we need it now not in 3 years. I think that our MERC team has done a good job but I do wish they were more transparent and communicated and led better. I remember a day a few years back when direction came from them, when the plan was implemented by them. I don't see that right now. I know all their hearts are in this division but I think it is time for a change,

I stepped down as Local President in the spring, first for personal reasons as the last 5 years have taken its toll on family life, and second to ensure if I decided to pursue my next goal in this division our local had a successor in place. While I was away I have found myself drawn back every day to fight for the needed changes in our workplaces. To bring this division together again to fight as one. I am 100% committed to my Sisters and Brothers in Corrections.

I am ready to bring proper communication to our leadership, where using the strength of the strong dedicated leaders this division has, becomes a common practice. I never claim to know everything and being able to communicate and receive direction from the membership is what being part of a Union is about. We always crack on OPSEU for not listening to us, well I am ready to listen and lead from the front.

It is for all these reasons, and the fact we need a solutions to the crisis we face before this profession falls apart, that I have decided to run for our MERC team and ask for the support of the membership and the local leaders that decide this election. Thank you to all my Sisters and Brothers who have fought beside me through out the years. Thank you to past and current MERC teams who have been mentors and leaders moving us in the right direction. Finally thank you to those that believe in me and support me in this endeavor.