City committee votes on mandate for labour negotiators
Posted January 5, 2012 11:42 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The city’s Employee and Labour Relations Committee voted on a mandate for its labour negotiators on Thursday, but wouldn’t go into specifics about the decision.
City workers are facing a potential lockout after contracts governing 32,500 employees expired on Dec. 31, 2011. Services like snow clearing and garbage collection would be affected.
Councillors on the committee wouldn’t say Thursday if or when employees would be locked out, but Coun. Janet Davis said she “wasn’t confident” the decision would prevent a lockout.
The mandate will cover upcoming talks between the unions and the city.
Councillor and deputy mayor Doug Holyday said the mandate would move talks forward, and that he doesn’t think the decision will prompt a lockout.
However, Davis called the mandate “aggressive” and said it didn’t reflect all of council and Torontonians.
The in-camera meeting, which was held to provide the committee with an update from its labour negotiators on the talks, began at 11 a.m. and was opened to public around 1 p.m.
The head of Local 416 alleges the city walked away from the table to request a conciliator from the province on Dec. 16, 2011.
A conciliator must be brought in before the city can lock out employees.
Members of Toronto Civic Employees’ Union (TCEU) Local 416, CUPE Local 79 and Local 2998 would be affected by the lockout.
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.
CUPE Ontario spokesman Kevin Wilson denied Holyday’s accusations. In an email to CityNews, he said Local 416 had set collective bargaining dates quickly “and came to the table with well-developed bargaining proposals.”
Click here to see the meeting agenda.
