Toronto garbage collectors, other workers on strike

Tuesday, June 23, 2009 at 6:26 AM Posted by Beijing News


Toronto garbage collectors, daycare workers and other municipal employees went on strike just after midnight on Monday in a contract dispute that could lead to a prolonged shutdown of important services in Canada's largest city.

The strike was authorized by two locals of the Canadian Union of Public Employees CUPE after the city and labor negotiators were unable to reach an agreement by Sunday. In all, about 24,000 workers are on strike, the union said.

"After six months at the bargaining table, the city has not heard the message from our members that they must be treated as fairly as all other unionized workers who provide public services to the people of Toronto," said Mark Ferguson, president of CUPE Local 416, in a statement.

The CUPE is Canada's largest union, with around 590,000 members across the country.

The city is demanding concessions from the workers, including the end of the practice of "banking" unused sick leave.

The union contends that other unionized public employees in the city, ranging from the parking authority to police and firefighters, have reached agreements with wage increases of at least 3 percent and no concessions.

"I am very disappointed that we have been unable to reach an agreement with the Toronto Civic Employees' Union Local 416 and the CUPE Local 79," Toronto's Mayor David Miller, said in a statement.

"City negotiators worked very hard to put the kind of proposals forward that would have resulted in a fair agreement. It is regrettable that those were not accepted," said Miller, who has asked residents and businesses to be patient while the city works to resolve the dispute.

Toronto's garbage collectors and thousands of other city workers caused a major disruption when they last went on strike for two weeks in the summer of 2002.

CUPE city workers in Windsor, Ontario, have been on strike for more than nine weeks.

Reporting by Euan Rocha; Editing by Frank McGurty





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