Union president says work-to-rule action could escalate as talks ‘slowing down’

There could soon be an increase in the work-to-rule campaign by the city’s inside workers.

CUPE Local 70 president Tim McGuire said talks between the two sides are slowing down.

Inside workers are three days into their work-to-rule campaign after the city and the union failed to come to an agreement over the weekend.

“Talks, for some reason, have continued to slow. We’re here to bargain,” McGuire told the media on Wednesday. “Yesterday we waited all day for a response from the city and we’re here to continue working through the mediation process and they’ve continued to slow. We want to continue to negotiate.”

Should negotiations continue to slow, McGuire said they are prepared to ramp up their work-to-rule campaign, but wouldn’t get into specifics about what that would mean.

“We will look at areas, as we go through this, what tasks under job descriptions, don’t need to be done and we will continue to learn,” he said. “We’ll continue to ramp up this work-to-rule campaign when we see how it’s actually impacting in the workplace and we’ll continue building it.”

McGuire wouldn’t give details on what an escalated work-to-rule campaign would entail or when it would begin, but said they will be keeping an eye on the deal struck with CUPE Local 416 outside workers.

However, he added that just because a deal was struck with outside workers, it doesn’t mean they will follow suit.

“I want to make it absolutely clear that the differences between our bargaining units, the services our members provide and therefore the deals that need to apply, the collective agreements that need to be in place, those differences are there today,” he said.

“They’re going to be there on Thursday. They’re going to be there on Friday and they’re going to be there through the term of this collective agreement. We need deals that make sense in those services,” he continued.

Inside workers began their work-to-rule campaign on Monday after extending the deadline to reach an agreement twice.

Fair wage increases and job stability have been among the major sticking points in the talks.

On Sunday, Mayor John Tory said he was “disappointed” by the threat of job action but was hopeful a deal could still be reached.

“I have faith in the collective bargaining process. I have faith in the professionalism of city employees to continue to deliver the services that the city provides to its residents and businesses,” the mayor said in a statement.

“The city’s bargaining team will continue to work with the provincial conciliator in order to achieve a resolution of these negotiations.”

McGuire said that since Monday the union has been fielding hundreds of calls from members, asking what work to rule means for them and how they can participate.

“We put in place an historic work-to-rule campaign starting Monday and we’re building that campaign. We have a team that are educating our frontline workers and educating management about what work to rule means.”

CUPE Local 79 represents the city’s 23,000 inside workers.