![](https://s3.amazonaws.com/socast-superdesk/media/20201030181024/5f9c5a92023d1607334ee8aajpeg.jpg)
Fierce fight brewing as unhappy jail guards in Ontario seek to form new union
TORONTO — Disaffected Ontario correctional officers are pushing for their own union in an increasingly bitter battle to win the hearts and cards of thousands of front-line jail workers.
Backed by a well-heeled Quebec-based labour organization, the raid on the Ontario Public Service Employees Union has laid bare a litany of long-standing grievances and seems destined for a major showdown in the coming months.
Barry Roy, president of the recently formed Ontario Association of Correctional Employees, said a new union in the corrections sector is long overdue given, in his view, OPSEU’s many failings.
“I was an OPSEU soldier,” said Roy, a 27-year guard and union activist. “Now, you can’t get me to even talk about it without my blood pressure boiling.”