City workers face potential winter lockout
Posted January 4, 2012 1:06 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Unionized workers employed by the City of Toronto are facing a potential winter lockout.
Four contracts representing about 32,500 unionized city workers expired on Dec. 31, 2011, and no new agreements have been made.
City negotiators will provide an update on the collective bargaining to the employee and labour relations committee on Thursday.
Last year, Toronto Civic Employees’ Union (TCEU) Local 416 president Mark Ferguson warned a lockout could start as early as January.
Councillor and deputy mayor Doug Holyday told CityNews on Wednesday that the unions are stalling negotiations, hoping to push contract talks to the spring or summer, when more people use more services.
“It’s their strategy: they won’t present anything meaningful, and they won’t discuss anything we’ve put forward,” Holyday charged.
Holyday told the Globe and Mail he’d like four provisions, including the bumping process, the city would like quashed during negotiations.
CUPE representative Kevin Wilson denied Holyday’s accusations. In an email to CityNews, he said Local 416 had set bargaining dates quickly “and came to the table with well-developed bargaining proposals.”
The Ontario Labour Relations Board has appointed a conciliator to oversee negotiations, but that conciliator has not yet met with both sides, the Star reported.
Local 416 represents more than 8,000 outside employees including paramedics and garbage workers.
According to Ferguson, one of the main issues in negotiations is Mayor Rob Ford’s plan to strip the “jobs for life” clause from union contracts. But that’s not his only concern. Ferguson said the city is targeting benefits and seniority.
Members of CUPE Local 79, which represents about 23,000 workers, and Local 2998 would also be affected by the lockout.
The “jobs for life” clause guarantees that employees with 10 years or more on the job will remain employed by the city in some capacity if their position is contracted out to the private sector.
It does not mean that an employee cannot be fired or cannot lose their job for another reason.
