Calgary guards continue to strike despite cease and desist order
Posted Apr 27, 2013 8:53 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Calgary prison guards are defying the latest wave of cease-and-desist orders from the Alberta government.
Guards continue to strike at the Calgary Remand Centre in a show of solidarity for their Edmonton counterparts.
They are striking on a rotational, hour-by-hour basis, to see how the situation plays out, but remain un-phased by the latest Tory move.
“We’re still here, I believe the employers doing what they need to, but the members have decided what they feel they need to,” Carrie-Lynn Rusznak, one of the Vice Presidents of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees said. “They’re still strong, they’re still united, and they’re still out here and comfortable.”
Rusznak said the Calgary members made the decision to come out, and they will make the decision when they are ready to go back in.
Alberta Union of Provincial Employees President Guy Smith said despite the warning jail workers have 100 per cent support from the union.
“We fully support the fact they had to take this action to get noticed,” he said. “What is really concerning to me is that instead of sitting down and trying to resolve this the government is running off to the courts and trying to turn these hard working and dedicated correctional officers into criminals.”
Smith goes on to say he believes that all provincial jails have since jumped on board with the wildcat action.
Deputy Premier Thomas Lukaszuk says inmates have been trashing the new Edmonton facility during the disruption.
Lukaszuk added there will be no negotiations with a union that engages in illegal activities.
He isn’t yet saying whether striking guards will be charged for ignoring a back to work order.
