The legal team representing the Province of Manitoba, and representatives of the Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union (MGEU), were to begin an arbitration hearing this week to finally resolve an impasse involving a contract for Provincial Correctional Officers that has been in negotiations for over two years. Instead, Provincial lawyers informed MGEU late last week that they were using a technical legal maneuver to block the start of proceedings and further delay getting a contract for Manitoba’s 1,100 Corrections Officers.

“The Manitoba Government has blindsided its own Correctional Officers,” said MGEU President Peter Olfert. “This stunt has infuriated the members and worsens a workplace environment that is already at the breaking point due to severe overcrowding and other serious health and safety concerns at provincial jails. To have this thrown in our faces at the eleventh hour is an affront to Correctional Officers, and they are understandably as mad as hell.”


To read the entire news release, click here.