Police officers in Durham Region could be donning ball caps and handing out information packages to the public as early as next week as a means of expressing their frustration at going several months without a contract.   

Several hundred members of the Durham Regional Police Association (DRPA) meeting in Oshawa Wednesday night voted unanimously in favour of a motion to form a job action committee that could recommend cops begin their protest campaign as early as Monday.

“The committee will be meeting as early as Monday and job action could begin that day,” association president Doug Cavanaugh said after the meeting in an Oshawa hotel conference room.

“The committee has marching orders from the membership and we have made some preparations.”

Mr. Cavanaugh said DRPA members are frustrated that they’ve been without a contract since the beginning of the year. He said members of the region’s police services board appear reluctant to begin contract negotiations in earnest.

“We’ve been prepared to bargain since April and the police services board has been dragging its feet,” Mr. Cavanaugh said.

“These are not grandiose contract negotiations,” he said. “(A contract) just brings stability. It shows respect.”

Negotiations between the police and the services board have been rocky in the past, with talks going to arbitration in 2006 and 2007, Mr. Cavanaugh said.

“We’ve had a contract for only two months out of the last three years,” he said.

Police Services Board chairman Terry Clayton said the board has scheduled talks with the association this coming weekend and members are hopeful headway will be made.

“I don't concur with (Mr. Cavanaugh) we’re dragging our feet,” Mr. Clayton said.

“As far as the board’s concerned we need to do this, but we have to be very conscious of financial implications.”

Mr. Clayton said association members are entitled to take job action to express their frustration over the status of their contract.

The coming weekend will prove pivotal; two days of talks are planned and members will be watching closely as they contemplate their first job action in several years, Mr. Cavanaugh said.
Members present at the closed-door meeting expressed frustration over the ongoing lack of a current contract as well as staffing, a perennial issue with Durham cops and their management.
The growing region requires more front-line officers to deal with a spiraling number of calls for service, Mr. Cavanaugh said.

“There’s no doubt we’re busier,” he said. “Calls for service are waiting hours if not days.
“I think the public expects and deserves better.”

Mr. Clayton said he remains optimistic about the prospect for progress when the two sides sit down for talks this weekend, but warned a new agreement may be a while in coming.

“I’m not holding my breath,” he said, “but I am cautiously optimistic.”