City
Toronto City Union Strike is Over?
The Toronto city union strike is very close to being over.
After 36 days off the job (and following a night of midnight oil burning, marathon talks) Mark Ferguson, the head of union representing outside workers under CUPE Local 416, took to the mic at 8:30am and announced that a tentative deal has been reached but is conditional on Local 416 member ratification.
He encouraged the city to get the same from inside workers of CUPE Local 79, who have yet to reach a deal with the city. Hopefully member ratification happens quickly for both unions and all workers return to the job soon.
A late night message from Ann Dembinski, the president of Local 79 to their members, was posted to their web page and suggests that things are pointing towards an agreement: "I want to let all Local 79 members know that we believe we are close to a negotiated settlement."
It's clearly a bittersweet moment for both sides. Details of the tentative agreement are not yet being released but will become known in the fullness of time. Ferguson is reportedly saying that no concessions were made on the union's part. Mayor Miller is remaining hum. Hopefully everyone is happy with a settlement that meets the demands of both sides, somewhere in the middle.
I'm sure we're all especially looking forward to the return of garbage collection, the cleanup of our city's parks (many of which have acted as temporary garbage dumps), the return of city-run daycare and event services.
Photo by swilton.
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In the meantime, miller will try to grab the headlines on this. A staunch NDP, he practically endorsed the strike.
TO ALL MEDIA: During the next municipal election campaign, make sure you give attention to those that have no current or past political affiliations and must be 100% independent. Let's hope you focus on all those that never get the press they deserve for the seat as mayor of Toronto. That includes town hall meetings etc. When you ignore them, we the voters ignore you.
I definitely don't know all the information - but not for lack of trying. It's time to end the strike, before these unions alienate everyone.
Do they just refuse to come back to work ever unless the city meets their demands?
To me that just sounds like the union trying to bluff the city into caving in a last ditch effort. Sadly, it seems to have worked.
If so, and I expect it is, this was all for not and the Mayor et al have screwed this BIG.
I resent being held hostage by these people and would rather see the unions crushed in favor of contracting out and gaining competition, greater efficiencies and better service.
Don't forget to buy the tags/stickers to go onto all of your garbage bags if you want them picked up.
I agree with most people here that state that trash collection should be privatized and/or contracted out, At least this way should they go on strike, you can simply class it as a breach of contract and hire another company to take over.
Unions use to stand for something, not anymore, from my experience with them, they only protected the slackers, those who didn't want to work "too hard" even when the job was easy. And when I hear these people asking for things that no other company in their right mind would accept, disgusts me.
It's time for these people to put things into perspective. Mr. Miller needs to grow a pair, and step up.... Tax payers pay for this service! If it was any other business they would be asking for their money back and they would get it..but here all I see are a bunch of terrorist demands where people either have to give them what they want or suffer the fallout.
Personally I always thought If you don't like you f-ing job get a new one!
Additionally, and I hate to say it but, if I recall correctly T.O. had a SARS outbreak shortly after the last one, so It wouldn't suprise me if T.O. has another outbreak this year.
If it doesn't fit in your bin it MUST be tagged.
Extra garbage bags can be left beside your Garbage Bin if you attach a City-issued yellow garbage bag tag to each bag. Five free yellow garbage bag tags were mailed directly to property owners in November 2008. These tags will expire on December 31, 2009.
Additional yellow garbage bag tags are available in packages of five for $15.50 ($3.10 each) at City of Toronto Canadian Tire stores and at Commissioners St. Drop-off Depot. Residents may also bring their garbage to a transfer station and pay a fee for disposal.
http://www.toronto.ca/target70/qa.htm#a49
-- Luciano Galasso
This was a legal strike, nobody broke the law. When they comeback to work should they be asked to work extra hours they should be paid overtime.
Had they let citizens simply deal with their garbage and dispose of it without illegal detaining people in their cars, I honestly believe that we wouldn't have seen so much illegal dumping, and we wouldn't be facing such a terrible aftermath.