City workers could be locked out in 17 days
Posted January 12, 2012 2:14 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Toronto outside workers could be locked out at the end of the month as negotiations between management and their union hit an impasse Thursday, the city says.
The city asked the Ontario Labour Relations Board for a No Board Report, which means that labour action can be taken by either side. If the report is accepted by the board, workers could be in a legal strike position and the city could be in a lockout position in as few as 17 days.
“Conciliation with Local 416 has not worked so far,” city manager Joseph Pennachetti said in a statement Thursday.
“We have been forced to take the next legal step available to us in our ongoing efforts to negotiate an agreement.”
“The city has not allowed enough time,” TCEU Local 416 representative Mark Ferguson countered Thursday.
“We’ve had two half-day meetings with a conciliator. All the city is interested in is a labour disruption, not negotiating a collective agreement…Everything that the city has done has been counterproductive.”
TCEU Local 416 represents approximately 8,000 outside workers. Contracts governing members of Local 416, CUPE Local 79 and Local 2998 — about 32,500 employees in total — expired on Dec. 31, 2011.
Collective bargaining with Local 79 continues, Pennachetti said. Negotiations with Local 2998, which represents community centre workers, have not yet begun.
Services like snow clearing and garbage collection would be affected by a potential labour disruption. Local 416 also represents paramedics, social housing workers, animal control officers and parking lot attendants.
Members of Local 79 operate over 130 recreations centres in the city as well as child care programs and long-term care facilities.
A No Board Report is a notice that the government will not appoint a conciliation board to settle a collective bargaining dispute.
