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civic workers, CUPE (8), garbage (10), strike (29)Fifteen minutes past the midnight strike deadline, union leaders for Toronto’s inside and outside workers declared strike action.
After a short, awkward silence, CUPE Local 79 president, Anne Dembinski and Mark Ferguson stated they had no other recourse but to make good on threats to strike after rejecting the city of Toronto’s latest offer, tabled at 9:30 p.m.
Ferguson described the city’s proposal as “complete garbage,” referring to it as a “vicious attack, an unwarranted attack on the city’s workers.”
According to Dembinski, the city refused to budge on any concessions it requested regarding its collective agreements with the unions, such as rolling back the option for city workers to “bank” sick days, cashing them out at retirement.
The union leaders complained the city has not requested similar concessions from other local service groups, such as firefighters, transit staff or police.
The union leaders’ language diverges widely from statements made earlier Sunday by the city’s communication director, Kevin Sack, which hinted there had been progress in negotiations.
Dembinski and Ferguson indicated willingness to negotiate throughout the night to avoid lengthy strike action.
“It’s very easy to avert a strike,” Dembinski said. “Remove the concessions.”
Following the strike announcement, Mayor David Miller stated, “The City is facing enormous budget challenges in 2009, 2010 and beyond. The cost of providing services must be in balance with the revenues the City has available to pay the bills.”
The more than 20,000 workers represented by the two unions have already begun to picket.
Garbage collection will be affected by the strike everywhere but Etobicoke, which uses private contractors, along with a host of other municipal services including day-care centres, outdoor pools, recreation centres and summer camps.