Hello all,

We have had quite an event full day yesterday with winning the court action to allow you to take the paper work strike, then having mediation and then meeting with the minister.

B Hanlon and P Monzari were at mediation for CANZ and a bit of time was spent talking about the apparent offer to the other union of 3% and a roll over till June. CIE have come out and said, out right that this is not the case. Although they are not prepared to tell any of you people that officially.

CIE went on to say they want to look forward and that they have money for July onwards. This has just been approved by treasury and can be bargained for in May. CIE then went on to say that there is still no money for now.

Our answer was, you can’t look forward until you fix the wrongs of the past. The fact that we have been promised money before and never received it is a big issue for us and our members. This generated a lot of debate. We pointed out that CIE have changed the way our members progress without consultation or agreement and have now basically made it impossible for our members to progress.

After a wee bit of debate, we did eventually agree that CIE will put an offer to us by Tuesday. This offer will essentially be the same as last time. We have told CIE some areas that don’t cost that need sweetening and they are going away to work on it. We will have this by Tuesday. CIE asked if we would withdraw the strike action as a sign of good faith. We refused as we have yet to see the colour of their money or even what their offer looks like.

The mediation was adjourned to another date. At this time B Maughan’s phone rang and he gave us the good news of our win in court over the strike notices.

As soon as we received this result the 4 national Officers (B Hanlon W Cochrane P Monzari and B Noakes) had a meeting and decided to contact the minister to arrange an urgent meeting. This happened later in the day.

Present at this meeting for CANZ were B Hanlon and W Cochrane. At this meeting CANZ expressed our great concern about the fact that CIE were actively going around threatening our members with lock outs and suspensions. We also said to the minister that it looks as though CIE would act illegally and lock us out by not complying with the act and due process for suspension. We said that this would be fantastic to read about and see on the news later in the day if it happened.

The minister said that this was a concern to him and that he didn’t want anyone to get suspended and that we would see if there were any other options available to them. We pointed out that our members will still be taking the inmates to work and calling in musters etc. They simply will not be signing any of the 4 documents noted on the strike notice.

We pointed out that managers or non union members could sign these documents or like is the case at some prisons it can be done via the computers. Some prisons it doesn’t even happen as the inmates walk themselves to the work site as they have walking privileges.

CANZ then asked the minister about the apparent money that has been approved. The minister has confirmed that there is money approved and that is will be available from 1st July 06. He wanted to know what our members wanted to get this contract settled.

CANZ said that they did not want to lose any conditions and would like a pay rise. He pointed out there is no more money for this year.

CANZ pointed out that if the money indicated by CIE was there and it was guaranteed, there may be a possibility of our members signing a document that they felt doesn’t disadvantage them. This offer would need to be presented by CIE as it was their offer and they need to show they are committed to resolving this issue. We would hold the meetings and let CIE talk at the meeting and it would be up to CIE to convince our members to sign up until July.

CANZ also pointed out that we would require some sign of good will towards our members to show that CIE are committed to a new way forward. We pointed out the heavy hand of the law from CIE would not be a good place to start on Monday. A very big sign of good will would be if the managers came in signed the B.03’s and let our members do there jobs as they would. This would mean that the managers would be busy for a few days but so be it.

The sooner CIE get us their offer for our members and we agree to get it ratified the sooner we may consider withdrawing any current strike action.

The minister saw this as reasonable. He did however point out that he does not run these departments that are the job of the CEO and the GM’s and at the end of the day it would be their decision to make.

From here there are 4 things you can be sure of:

• CANZ have successfully defended the Strike Notice and beaten those who get paid far more than all of us put together and apparently know a heck of a lot more... The paperwork strike is all go as of 00:01 on Monday morning.
• That CIE have the right to suspend you for taking strike action.
• Within 24hrs of the first suspension a decision will be made in relation to the current strike.
• CANZ will continue to work with CIE over the weekend and try to get a positive result for our members

Sent on behalf of the CANZ National Officers