The City of Toronto says it is willing to keep the lines of communications open with two major municipal unions in order to avoid an "unnecessary" strike that would see thousands of indoor and outdoor workers walk off the job on Monday morning.
City spokesperson Kevin Sack told reporters Saturday that the city will keep working towards reaching a negotiated agreement with the unions and is prepared to keep negotiating through the union-imposed deadline of 12:01 a.m. on Monday.
Three-year contracts for both Local 416 and Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 79 expired at the end of last year. They are both involved in negotiations with the city.
"The City of Toronto continues to believe that a strike is unnecessary and we will continue to negotiate to reach an agreement," Sack said just after the start of a 2 p.m. news conference on Saturday afternoon.
"The union, in our opinion, does not have to strike as the city is willing to negotiate an agreement that is both fair and reasonable."
Sack said the city believes collective agreements must be fair to city employees, affordable to Torontonians and they must contain changes that will allow public services to be provided at their highest levels.
But CUPE Local 416 spokesperson Pat Daley said the city has made little progress in negotiations with its workers to date, and as a result, workers are prepared to begin striking on Monday.
"For us right now, that's a deadline. We've been negotiating for six months and there's been virtually no movement with the city," Daley told The Canadian Press. "(We set) a deadline in the first place because this has got to get done, it can't just drag on and on and on and the city has got to get serious."
Daley said the union went into bargaining with a "pretty small package of proposals," which was countered by 118 pages of concessions the city wanted.
She said the city wants to change the way some of its policy is worded, including on issues of job security, seniority and scheduling. Another major sticking point is the issue of changes to employee sick days.
"These collective agreements with both locals have been negotiated over decades with the city," Daley said. "To just come in and try to change everything and roll back on the way they do things in the workplace really isn't acceptable."
Local 79 has agreed to a media blackout with the city, meaning that they will keep the details of their negotiations private for the time being.
The city has held dozens of talks with both unions since their contracts expired on Dec. 31.
Local 79 represents thousands of Toronto's indoor workers, including those working at city-run daycares, community centres and City Hall.
Local 416 represents some 6,200 outdoor workers including solid waste, water, animal services, parks and recreation and Toronto EMS employees. Garbage collectors are also members of this union.
Many Torontonians remain concerned about a city-wide garbage strike, with memories of the last such strike in the summer of 2002 still fresh in their minds.
Tonny Louie, a director with the downtown Chinatown BIA, said that "ordinary citizens will become the victims," if the strike goes forward.
As for the issue of garbage, he believes that "any time you're dealing with health, it (should be) a mandatory service."
With files from The Canadian Press
