City Informs Union It Wants To Contract Out Garbage Collection

Mayor Rob Ford took his first step forward on a controversial promise to contract out garbage collection Monday and the union representing trash collectors characterized the move as “an ideological attack on the public sector” that wouldn’t save taxpayers cash.

City officials informed CUPE local 416 Monday of their intention to open up a competitive bidding process for garbage collection west of Yonge Street to the Etobicoke border, increased privatized litter vacuum operations and litter and recycling collection in city parks, affecting about 300 jobs.

A “jobs for life” provision in the union contract for garbage collectors requires the city provide jobs for those full-time, permanent employees whose position is contracted out.

The city gave the union three months notice of its intention to put the matter before council, as is required under the collective agreement that expires Jan. 31. The proposal goes before council for approval in May.

“We anticipate that we will see financial savings while, at the same time, ensuring continued high customer service standards and less likelihood of city-wide labour disruptions of the kind we have experienced in the past,” Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong, Chair of the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee, said Monday. He said the savings would total $8 million.

Ford made contracting out garbage collection a key campaign promise, claiming it would save taxpayers $20 million a year. The mayor prompted criticism when he only offered a brief statement Monday and didn’t take questions.

CUPE Local 416 President Mark Ferguson claims the Ford administration has relied on “fuzzy math”, and cited figures for 2009 produced by the Ontario Municipal Benchmarking Initiative that showed the cost of garbage collection in Toronto is 30 per cent below the provincial average.

“We have a message, and a clear one for the Mayor and City Councillors,” Ferguson said. “Contracting out is an ideology based on emotion not facts. We know it will cost residents more money.”

Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday said the privatization proposal should have been put forward in 1998 and said now is the time to implement it because “the world has gone against monopolies.”

Holyday said the union would have the opportunity to put a bid forward if it so chooses, but Ferguson said that’s not the case because the union isn’t an employer or contractor.

Privatized garbage collection is not new in Toronto. Residential service has been contracted out for 16 years in Etobicoke. Bulk collection in apartments and condominiums and about 25 per cent of litter vacuum operations are privatized.

The area the residential curb-side contract would be in is bounded by Yonge Street to the east, the Humber River to the west and Steeles Avenue to the north, encompassing about 165,000 homes.

If the competitive bid process is approved at City Hall, the new service wouldn’t go into effect until mid-2012, officials said.

Labour leaders aren’t happy with this development, but voters that still had the stench of the six-week garbage strike in the summer of 2009 fresh on their minds obviously liked Ford’s privatization plan. The province stepped in and ended a 16-day garbage strike back in 2002.

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