Latest news with #KyleRoss
CBC
08-05-2025
- CBC
Officer stabbed twice in back by inmate at Brandon Correctional Centre, police say
Social Sharing A corrections officer was rushed to hospital in Brandon after being stabbed twice in the back by an inmate at the provincial jail, police say. The 47-year-old man suffered non-life-threatening injuries in the stabbing on Monday, said police, who were called to the Brandon Correctional Centre around 8:45 p.m. A 41-year-old man is charged with assaulting a peace officer with a weapon, aggravated assault of a peace officer and assaulting a peace officer causing bodily harm. The Brandon Police Service is "deeply concerned for the well-being of the staff member injured," and its major crimes unit is investigating, a news release said Wednesday. It did not identify the staff member's position at the medium-security facility, but Kyle Ross, president of the Manitoba Government and General Employees' Union, said it was a corrections officer. "It's a real unfortunate event, where one of our officers was attacked and stabbed while on the job," he said. "[It] must be very difficult for that worker right now. We haven't had an opportunity to connect [with] them [but] we're hoping we can soon." Ross doesn't know how long the officer has been working there. There are many staff in jails aside from corrections officers, including those in administration, health care, social work and counselling, rehabilitation, education, food services and maintenance. An internal review has been launched at the correctional centre to examine the circumstances and reinforce safety measures for both staff and inmates, the Brandon Police Service news release said. CBC News reached out to the province about the scope of the internal review, whether any immediate changes have been made and how long the review is expected to take. A spokesperson provided the following response: "Standard operational review, as would occur after every serious incident. No timeline." 'Challenging job' A 27-year-old inmate at the facility was charged just a few months ago with first-degree murder in the death of his 23-year-old cellmate. The cellmate was repeatedly punched and kicked, police said. He was rushed to hospital but died from his injuries. "Working in correctional facilities is a challenging job, and right now, with the [inmate] counts being as high as they are, it's getting more challenging for our workers, and we're hopeful we can find ways to make it safer for them and the inmates they're in charge of," Ross said. The Brandon Correctional Centre has a capacity of 244 inmates. Ross was not sure how many are currently there. In comparison, "there is barely enough staff" to deal with the challenges, he said. "Workers are being stretched thinner than they'd like." Recruitment efforts by the province are underway, "but it's a difficult job to recruit for," Ross said. "When I speak to the officers, I hear it often: it's a very different job compared to 10 years ago. The inmates that are in these facilities are far more dangerous and more volatile than they were in the past." There are more gangs and illicit drug use among inmates, he said.
CBC
07-05-2025
- Health
- CBC
Winnipeg paramedic union calls for help amid 'unbelievable' violence levels, burnout on the job
The union representing paramedics in Winnipeg is sounding the alarm about poor working conditions, following results from a recent member survey that showed high rates of violence and burnout on the job and inadequate staffing and support from management. Kyle Ross, president of the Manitoba Government and General Employees' Union, said the survey highlighted problems that have "been left to fester for far too long." "Our members at the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service show up when our city needs them, they show up when our citizens need them, and [they're] responding to calls that are getting increasingly more complex and more difficult," Ross said at a Wednesday morning news conference at Union Centre on Broadway, in downtown Winnipeg. "They are being asked to do more with less, and right now the city and its leadership is not showing up for them." The survey, which the union said got 205 responses from paramedics and dispatchers from April 2 to 9 — about a 70 per cent response rate from members who received it — heard 93 per cent of paramedics who responded had experienced violence on the job. Of those, 24 per cent said they'd experienced it daily, and 41 per cent said it happened weekly. Ross said stress was also a key theme that emerged: 67 per cent said they either rarely or never felt adequately staffed on shift, and 78 per cent felt drained or burned out because of stress at work. Seventy-one per cent of respondents said they'd seriously considered leaving their job in the last year, and 63 per cent felt "not at all" or "not very" supported by management. "It's time for the city to show some initiative, listen to the front-line workers and take action to fix these issues," Ross said. "Paramedics are not getting the time off they need to recover from difficult calls. They are facing growing violence and they feel their work is misunderstood, undervalued and unsupported by management." The union said the survey was sent to 287 of its roughly 390 members, a difference it said is because it doesn't have personal contact information for all its members. CBC has requested comment from the city and the province. Crews 'physically and emotionally exhausted' Ryan Woiden, a Winnipeg paramedic who also serves as president of MGEU Local 911, representing paramedics and dispatchers, said the level of violence paramedics see on the job has become "unbelievable." "While people sleep in their beds, paramedics are out there, and they're getting things swung at them, kicked, punched — it's all sorts of things going on out there," Woiden said at Wednesday's news conference. "When you call 911, you want to know that someone is going to be there, and we want to be there for those citizens. But the reality is the system that we have right now is not supporting the people that are responding, and it's not supporting the people that are expecting us there. Our crews are physically and emotionally exhausted." Woiden said call volumes are so high right now, there's often no time for paramedics to decompress before heading to the next potentially traumatic event. "Imagine if you're trying to help somebody and you have a patient on your stretcher in the hospital — and then when you offload them into a bed at the hospital, you walk out to your truck and you realize you've been on [another] call for four or five minutes and you didn't even know it," he said. "When I know someone's been waiting for me for four minutes, and it's a life or death situation, that puts a lot of stress on me, and that puts a lot of stress on our paramedics — and we need that to change." All that contributes to low morale and more people leaving the job — whether it's for early retirement, moving to police or firefighting, or leaving the city altogether, he said. "I believe what we're looking for is for someone to be accountable to try to fix this system," Woiden said, adding paramedics are calling on leadership at the city and provincial levels to "understand that we cannot be any more clear: we need help, and we need it from them today." He said while "people used to ask the question, 'How many more ambulances do you need?'" whatever solutions come next have to go beyond that. "If you've got a tap that's just gushing water, and you're filling … cup after cup after cup, eventually the question isn't, 'How many more cups do you need,' right?" Woiden said.
CBC
08-04-2025
- Business
- CBC
Strike at Métis, Michif child and family services agencies ends, members back to work Tuesday: MGEU
Social Sharing After just under two weeks in the picket lines, workers at two Métis and Michif child and family services agencies will go back to work on Tuesday, after their union says it's reached an agreement with the employer to resolve outstanding contract negotiations through arbitration. More than 330 employees of the two agencies — the Winnipeg-area Métis Child, Family and Community Services, and Michif Child and Family Services, serving the Dauphin, The Pas and Brandon areas — went on strike on March 25. The employees, who are represented by the Manitoba Government and General Employees' Union (MGEU), have been without a contract since the previous agreements expired on Jan. 31, 2023. Workers had been asking for a new agreement that matched the four-year, 14 per cent wage increase members represented by the MGEU in other civil services got last year. Late Monday evening, the union announced it has reached an agreement with the agencies to resolve outstanding contract negotiations through interest arbitration, effectively bringing the strike to an end. In a statement, MGEU president Kyle Ross said the resolution "is an important step forward in our efforts to achieve wage parity for CFS members." "We will continue to advocate for that outcome in arbitration," he said. Last week, MGEU applied to the Manitoba Labour Board to have the current contract dispute with the agencies resolved by an independent arbitrator. On Monday, the union said it would withdraw that application, after the employer agreed to voluntary arbitration. As part of the agreement, the parties are scheduled for a hearing on April 22, with the arbitrator committing to deliver a ruling within four weeks. Union members from both agencies will return to work on Tuesday, MGEU said.
CBC
03-04-2025
- Politics
- CBC
MGEU tests new Manitoba labour legislation in strike by child and family services agencies
Labour legislation passed last fall in Manitoba is about to be tested by one of province's largest unions. The Manitoba Government and General Employees' Union has applied to the provincial labour board under new provisions of the Labour Relations Act to (LRA) have the current contract dispute with two child and family services (CFS) agencies resolved by an independent arbitrator. More than 300 members at Michif Child and Family Services and Métis Child, Family and Community Services are now in their second week of a strike, fighting for wage parity with other provincial workers who do similar jobs, MGEU president Kyle Ross says. "It's alarming to note that neither of these employers has approached the MGEU to get back to the bargaining table with a fair and reasonable offer for these workers," Ross said Thursday at the Union Centre on Broadway in Winnipeg. That foot dragging is putting families and kids at risk, even moreso as layoffs to 20 per cent of the unionized staff at the agencies take effect Thursday, he says. MGEU's filing argues those layoffs infringe on the workers' ability to strike in a meaningful way because, in order to maintain a certain level of essential service more workers will now have to leave the picket line to go back to work. The recent amendments to the LRA mean a union can ask the Manitoba Labour Board to order a dispute be resolved through arbitration if the requirement to perform essential services has compromised the right to strike and the right to collective bargaining. Most of the striking workers are employed at shelters operated by the CFS agencies, created to prevent Métis children and youth in care from being placed in hotels and to help young adults aging out of care. As a result, not all of the unionized workers have been on the picket line. About half have been working to maintain an essential level of care required for vulnerable youth, whose quality of life could otherwise be at risk, the MGEU says. The layoffs have added another concern for workers who are trying put pressure on the employer by striking while also balancing a level of care. They have now been without a contract since the previous agreements expired on Jan. 31, 2023. Any wage increases bargained into a new contract should be retroactive to that date, but Ross is concerned the employers will argue those payments only apply to members still working when the new deal is ratified. "Those workers who were laid off today stand to lose two years of retroactive pay," he said. The Manitoba Métis Federation has said budget constraints led to the layoffs but "the employer hasn't laid bare what their financial situation is," Ross said. "They have a duty to let us know what their financial situation is so we can understand when they're issuing layoffs and when we're bargaining. But we have yet to hear that from them," he said. In the meantime, funding from the province to CFS agencies has increased by more than 14 per cent over the past three years, including more than $2 million in new funding in last month's budget, Ross says, "so the money for wage parity is there." "We believe those layoffs are part of a bargaining strategy. We've been arguing with them for over two years and there was no mention … at any time that there would be layoffs coming. Then, once our members chose to push back and take a strike mandate, they brought down these layoffs." On March 24, Southeast CFS was able to avert a strike and reach a new collective agreement by offering wage parity, Ross says, adding both the Métis CFCS and the Michif CFS received proportionally similar funding increases.
CBC
28-03-2025
- Business
- CBC
Southeast Child and Family Services workers ratify agreement as Métis, Michif agencies continue strike
Workers with Southeast Child and Family Services have voted in favour of a new collective agreement days after two sister agencies hit the picket line calling for better wages. Members of Southeast CFS Local 395 have ratified a new collective agreement that bumps wages up to parity with other staff doing the same work in the civil service, the Manitoba Government and General Employees' Union said in a release Friday. That's four days after about 390 workers with the Métis and Michif child and family services agencies began a strike, demanding wage parity. The union says under the most recent offer, annual wages for those workers would fall from $3,800 to $5,300 behind civil service workers by the end of the proposed contract. They've been without a contract since Jan. 31, 2023. The last contract for Southeast Child and Family Services, which provides services to eight First Nations in southeastern Manitoba, expired on March 31, 2022. About 170 workers with the agency had voted in December in favour of a strike, but a tentative agreement was reached Monday, before job action began. MGEU president Kyle Ross said in the union's release that reaching the deal was a "long process," but it will make a "real difference" for workers. The new four-year contract includes wage increases in each year of the agreement, a retention step at the top of each salary schedule, and new shift and weekend premiums, as well as an increase to bereavement and family responsibility leave and wellness days, the release said. The union will continue fighting for a deal for Métis and Michif CFS workers, who also deserve wage parity, Ross said.
