City prepares walkout plans
Strike by outside workers would affect waste pickup, pools
With both sides hoping for a deal, mayor won't reveal plans
John Spears and Paul Moloney
5 July 2005
The Toronto Star

Toronto garbage collection and a host of other city services will be affected if outside workers go on strike.

A walkout would halt garbage collection in most of the city, except for the old municipality of Etobicoke and most of the former York, where private firms do the pickup.

Local 416 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees will be in a legal strike position at 12: 01 a.m. Friday.

To prepare, the city has been making contingency plans for a strike, Mayor David Miller said.

City spokesman Kevin Sack acknowledged that the city has scouted parking lots for use as possible emergency garbage dump sites, and plans to bring in a contractor to spray emergency dumps to keep down pests.

The city has already contacted pest control firms, although no deals have been made.

But the impact of an outside workers strike would also be felt in other areas including:

Ferry service to the Toronto islands.

Pools and splash-pads could close.

City golf courses would close.

Washrooms in public parks would shut down.

"We're going to endeavour to keep the pools open, but I don't know if we can," Miller said yesterday.

Some community events would also be hampered by a strike, including the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition, slated to kick off in Nathan Phillips Square on Friday. The exhibition's website says the show will be cancelled if a strike takes place.

Sack noted that if a strike occurs Friday, it would affect only those with Friday pickup.

The next scheduled pickup day is the following Tuesday, "so essentially there is an appropriate amount of time to let the public know what to do," he said in an interview.

"We'll have more for people in a couple of days when we know what's going on at the table."

There were some hints of optimism yesterday from Brian Cochrane, president of Local 416.

Cochrane said that for the first time, the two sides appeared close to resolving a pair of important issues, though he wouldn't identify them.

"I'm certainly feeling a little better," Cochrane said in an interview.

"Optimistic would be too strong a word. I think the door has opened a little bit. It needs to be kicked open yet. There's a little light coming through that door and hopefully that will allow the parties to gain some momentum."

Miller told reporters he's optimistic about achieving a settlement and insisted there is goodwill on both sides of the table.

But there are issues that haven't been resolved in the seven years since amalgamation, he said.

Key issues include the still-unfinished job of harmonizing workers' job descriptions and wage levels. Before amalgamation, Toronto's six local municipalities and Metro Toronto all had separate collective agreements.

Miller added that he hopes to avoid arbitration in the current round of talks.

"It's always much better when the sides can reach an agreement," he said.

The mayor wouldn't say whether he will come to his office at City Hall in the event of a strike.

During the last strike by city workers in 2002, Miller - then a councillor - wouldn't use his City Hall office, working in his ward instead. Now that he's mayor, his staff won't reveal his intentions.

"We're not going to speculate at this (point)," Miller's spokesman, Patchen Barss, said yesterday, adding that Miller's focus is on avoiding a strike.

The union ran radio and newspaper ads over the weekend saying little progress has been made, and asking citizens to call councillors and the mayor "to address the concerns of city employees."

It's going to be a stinky summer. :puke:

I hope this actually doesn't happen again. The strike from a few years back was just absolutely horrible. It left such a bad impression on the tourists that visited the city. The stench was just awful in the summer heat, and the amount of maggots and flies that the huge trashpiles attracted was disgusting.

It should be illegal for trash collectors to strike over the summer - due to health issues.

I hope this actually doesn't happen again. The strike from a few years back was just absolutely horrible. It left such a bad impression on the tourists that visited the city. The stench was just awful in the summer heat, and the amount of maggots and flies that the huge trashpiles attracted was disgusting.

Remember how some city parks were used as garbage collection centers? Lord, Christie Pits was one stinky place that's normally a gorgeous urban space. Let's not even talk about Chinatown or Kensington!

Yeah, Chinatown ended up being such a dump. I was there often during the strike and god the stench becaem unbearable.
How many yrs has it been since that last strike?

I thought they came to an agreement a few weeks ago? Did the union members not ratify it, or am I simply remembering something wrong?

:bash: :puke: :wtf: :fart:

I think these emotes sum up my feelings about the issue.

City talks down to the wire
6,000 workers, including garbage collectors, seek new deal
Trash drop-off sites put into place if strike goes ahead
John Spears
8 July 2005
The Toronto Star

Toronto continued to flirt with a strike by 6,000 outside workers, including garbage collectors and water-treatment employees, the leader of their union said late yesterday.

In an afternoon news conference, Brian Cochrane castigated city negotiators and senior managers for dragging their feet in the talks with Canadian Union of Public Employees, Local 416.

"There are senior bureaucrats in the city where we're not sure they've put in a full day's work on this thing," a frustrated Cochrane said during a break in talks.

He said as talks moved down to a midnight strike deadline by the union, four big issues remained to be dealt with - not counting a wage and benefit package.

That put him sharply at odds with city manager Shirley Hoy, who had given a more upbeat assessment of progress a few hours earlier and said the two sides were already discussing money.

"I understand that they're talking about the monetary issues. We've made significant progress. They've signed off on a number of very critical issues to both us and Local 416," she said.

"The likelihood of a strike isn't that high. There's a very good chance we get a negotiated settlement."

Money is usually the final issue on the table during labour talks.

"Quite frankly, we don't know if we're in the same country," Cochrane said of the city's assessment. "I have not sat in a room with a city official to talk about money today."

Cochrane insisted that only smaller issues had been cleared up during yesterday's talks.

Major issues still on the table late in the day included the city's practices of contracting out - or bringing back contracted-out work into the sphere of unionized city employees.

Yesterday the city released a contingency plan in the event of a strike. Hoy said the city's seven waste transfer stations would be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and that residents would be able to take their household waste to seven additional sites across the city. The waste department has set aside another 10 sites in case they're needed.

The city would suspend its green and blue bin recycling programs during a strike.

With files from Gabe Gonda

fuck unions. theyre such losers.

Simple, privatizes the garbage collection. Where I live we have both private and public garbage collection and in my area it's private and they do just as a better job. Plus City Hall saves money.

fuck unions. theyre such losers.


I found your comment very insightful and informative. Now would you elaborate please?

:jk:

I don't believe that in CA has same problem but not sure.

I don't believe that in CA has same problem but not sure.

Blink, enough about the senseless california comparisons to Toronto. This is not a versus thread and it's not welcome here.



By the way, a tentative agreement has just been reached. I'm so glad they were able to hammer this one out.

Deal averts garbage strike
Key breakthrough this morning leads to tentative 4-year pact

AMY BROWN-BOWERS
STAFF REPORTER

A four-year tentative deal was struck between the city and one of its unions this morning averting a strike that would have affected garbage pick up, parks, pools and other outside services.

At a joint press conference at 11:30 a.m., following 72 hours of talks, CUPE Local 416 and City of Toronto negotiators announced the deal. It affects 6,000 workers who will vote later this week.

"It's a creative and innovative agreement," Local 416 president Brian Cochrane said. "Every major concern the union had on the table was addressed either in full or in part."

Mayor David Miller was also pleased.

"Both sides were creative particularly around some issues of layoff and recall of temp employees," Miller said, adding that many of the issues that were resolved had existed since amalgamation.

That "is a tremendous achievement," he said.

Cochrane described the talks as "the toughest set of negotiations I've ever participated in ..... and also probably the most frustrating."

"There are a host of things in this agreement that we're really proud of," Cochrane said.

Cochrane was pleased that the deal recognizes seniority rights but said things like selection of shift and location were sacrificed.

The union represents garbage workers, paramedics, ferry workers and staff at city golf courses, city-run museums, some community centres and day camps.

Talks continued after yesterday's noon deadline because significant progress had been made between the two groups, both of which wanted to avoid a walk-out.

"It was never our intention, never our desire to (strike)," Cochrane said.

Despite a difficult morning yesterday when talks looked like they might derail, things took a turn for the better, according to Cochrane. The break came when mediators helped the two sides "to unlock a very, very key piece" of the contract dealing with job-security issues.

With that cleared up, the union tabled a comprehensive wage and benefit package for the city.

But by then the clock was ticking very close to the strike deadline of noon. Cochrane met reporters shortly after to say that the union extended the deadline because its comprehensive monetary offer was complicated and would take time for the city to digest.

"It would be somewhat discourteous if we gave them a package and just ran off," he said yesterday. "There has been significant progress. We don't want to throw out the baby with the bathwater at this point in time."

Cochrane asked his members who work in key areas, such as water and sewage-treatment plants, to stay on the job despite the passing of the strike deadline.

Ferry workers had already agreed to work until 8 p.m. last night if there was a strike, to avoid stranding Saturday picnickers on the Toronto Islands and ferry services continued this morning.

By 9 p.m. the city was still mulling over the union offer.