Un- classified workers looking for a little respect

Members of OPSEU local 616 hosted a cold lunch barbecue at the North Bay Jail Wednesday in support of un- classified workers.

“Today is just a day to get all the unclassified together throughout the province and to show that the institutions wouldn’t run without us,” explains Andre Shank an un-classified guard shown with his wife and daughter.

Shank says the difference between an un-classified worker and a full time position is immense yet the work is the same.

“A full time position is where you get your vacation and benefits and what not and unclassified we get nothing like that … we get prescheduled anywhere between 0 to 40 hours and the rest are called in to pick up your hours … they call you at home you drop your life and come into work … and you need those (call in) hours to convert into a full time job, so you’ve got to come in.”

Shank says it is time for the government to properly acknowledge his fellow workers and show some respect for the work they do.

“Yeah we want respect, if you look at the Firefighters the Police there are no unclassified, we want fulltime jobs we want stable jobs … we want to be able to have a life with our families, so that’s what we want. “

“I think we should be recognised, even part time have a better schedule than we do, we get our schedule in at least three weeks in advance that’s the agreement we have with our local management which isn’t too bad but before we used to get the schedule on Sunday night for the following Monday. So you don’t have time to plan your life, especially people with families like myself I have a wife and two kids and it’s really tough.”

Shank added that with OPSEU in the middle of negotiations with the province the time is right to host the information pickets.

“Again to let the public know and let the government know that without us your jails wouldn’t run. For instance here I believe there are 24 unclassified and there are 32 or 35 fulltime people working here so we’re a huge part of this jail.”