Remand guards bound by law to raise their safety concerns
Re: “Province, workers locked in struggle; Correctional officers walked out on Friday,” the Journal, April 29. I am gravely concerned that Alberta cabinet ministers are pointing fingers at correctional officers who are performing their due diligence.
Under the Occupational Health and Safety Act and regulations in Alberta, workers have not only the right but the obligation to refuse to work in an unsafe environment. They can be fined for working in that situation.
These hard-working corrections personnel have identified safety concerns and under the law occupational health and safety has to investigate before work continues.
Nobody should go to work and unnecessarily risk their safety. The law says so.
I thank correctional officers and their colleagues for keeping safe and secure those persons the rest of us don’t want to be around.
Now the ministers involved and the premier should show these workers the respect they deserve and create a safe working environment so they can get back to protecting us.
Larry Connell, Calgary
Making a crisis worse
Deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk says the government will not negotiate with guards at the Edmonton Remand Centre and other facilities until they give in.
This is a bad way to try to force people to negotiate. The guards would not have gone on strike if they hadn’t had a real reason, and the government should be trying to solve problems rather than making them worse.
People are being hurt every hour that the government refuses to negotiate.
Its attitude that “we know best and you know nothing” will not solve this dispute.
We expect our government to care for the needs of people rather than pushing them into deeper trouble.
Many of the prisoners affected by this strike have mental health problems. They need medications and care more than most.
Albertans should call on Premier Alison Redford to provide leadership in this situation and not to make it worse. Don Mayne, Edmonton