Saturday update.
As contract negotations continue at a Queen Street hotel on Saturday, Paul Moist, the union's national president, has requested a meeting with Toronto Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday in an effort to 'refocus' talks.
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The national president of the union representing Toronto’s outside workers in contract negotiations with the city wants to “tone down” the rhetoric as talks continue Saturday, Feb. 4, in advance of a midnight deadline.
Negotiators for CUPE Local 416, which represents some 6,000 unionized outside workers in Toronto, and the city were meeting today at the Sheraton Hotel on Queen Street. As of 12:01 a.m. Sunday, Feb. 5, both the city and the union will be in a legal position to begin either a lockout or a strike respectively.
Paul Moist, CUPE national president, said in a press conference Saturday afternoon at the hotel, that he would like to meet with Toronto Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday to “refocus” the talks.
Moist said published reports in which Holyday had called this set of contract negotiations a “crucible” for the City of Toronto that would have a ripple effect on municipal bargaining across the country, were not helpful.
“I’m requesting a meeting with Deputy Mayor Holyday to refocus these talks and tone down the war of words.”
Moist said at the 3 p.m. press conference that he had not yet had a response from Holyday to the request.
He added that talks were continuing between the union and the city at the hotel and that he was hoping a deal could be reached.
“They have a lot of issues to continue talking about, but negotiators can never come up with an agreement by not talking.”
He said the union is not looking to strike. “They want to avoid picket lines and come up with a two-party agreement.”
A strike or lockout scenario on Sunday is highly unlikely. A strike by CUPE would require a strike vote by union members, which requires 48 hours notice to schedule.
The city said Friday it will act on its own to change the working conditions of its unionized outside workers under the terms of its final offer made on Thursday, Feb. 2, but was not planning a lockout.
“We’re entitled to do certain things and we are doing them,” Deputy Mayor Holyday told Toronto Community News on Friday afternoon.
The sticking point after months of negotiations is not money. The union is offering to take a three-year pay freeze, while the city is offering lump sump payments of 1.25 to 1.75 per cent over four years - but several “prohibitive clauses” in the contract, Holyday said.
Clauses protecting jobs for permanent employees when work is contracted out, requiring union agreement in scheduling work and filling vacancies, or allowing workers to take meal breaks when they wish, lead to inefficiencies and cost the city millions each year, Holyday said.
The union says it has agreed to change many of the clauses.
On Friday, Local 416 president Mark Ferguson called the city offer “threatening” and said it was not acceptable.
At Saturday’s press conference, Moist called the publicly tabled offer “a shot across the bow” of CUPE.
“It was a bit of a surprise and an irritant to us,” he said.
Holyday, chairperson of the city’s labour relations committee, said his bargaining team wanted what he called the contract’s “jobs for life” clause - protecting permanent employees - restricted to workers with at least 22 years of service. The union has said it should be in effect after five years.
Services the local’s workers provide include waste collection in Toronto east of Etobicoke, maintaining indoor and outdoor arenas, pools parks maintenance and some snow clearing services.
Certain Local 416 employees - 850 paramedics in the Toronto Emergency Medical Services and 34 workers in city-run long-term care homes - would not be subject to rule changes imposed by the city, because their contracts are protected by other provincial laws. The long-term-care workers cannot strike.
Even with the contract changes, which the city said are legal under Ontario’s Labour Relations Act of 1995, the rest of the local will still be left with “one of the best contracts” for municipal workers in Canada, Holyday said, adding he did not think most residents, or most Local 416 employees, would notice a difference overnight.
Separate negotiations with the city’s inside workers in CUPE Local 79 are said to be continuing.
–with files from David Nickle and Mike Adler