Article content

Correctional officers and staff set up an information picket line outside the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre Thursday morning after overwhelmingly rejecting a tentative contract offer from the province.

Officers holding signs that read “Strike Alert” and “Crisis in Corrections” held up police paddy wagons and other vehicles as they pulled into or out of the jail.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Officers picket Ottawa jail after rejecting provincial contract offer Back to video

“We’d like to see much better wages because we have fallen behind over the years, we’d like to see us recognized for the essential work we do, we’d like to see our own collective agreement,” said union local president Denis Collin.

Collin said if the province doesn’t make another contract offer correctional officers could be on strike by January.

The information picket came after Ottawa correctional, probation and parole employees voted 93 per cent against the tentative contract on Wednesday night. Union locals at jails across the province similarly voted overwhelmingly against the proposed contract, which was reached by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union and the provincial government on Nov. 24.