The Western Australian Prison Officers Union will try to attract more support for its anti-privatisation campaign when it meets the Mayor of Kalgoorlie-Boulder today.

The union is concerned the new eastern Goldfields prison, which is due for completion in 2013, will be run as a private operation.

Union secretary John Welch is hoping Mayor Ron Yuryevich will join Kalgoorlie MP John Bowler in opposing the idea.

Mr Welch says prison standards would suffer under a private model.

"We only have to look at the disaster that led to the death of Mr Ward, which was in the Kalgoorlie-Boulder region, to ask the question why would we want a private company to be given control of our prisons in Kalgoorlie?" he said.

"We wouldn't privatise the police, why would you want to privatise the prison service?"