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City of Toronto workers are now on strike

Illegal Garbage already stinks in Christie Pits Park. This much garbage already in Christie Pits Park. CUPE Locals 416 and 79 have announced its 24,000 members will walk off the job Monday morning.

Services disrupted include:

Related Pages: Parks are Not Dumps! - Protect our Children, Please sign Parks are not Dumps! PETITION

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Mayor Miller Statement

Date: June 22, 2009 Time: 1:00 a.m. Location: Toronto City Hall, Members' Lounge, 100 Queen Street West .

Statement by Mayor David Miller - disappointed that no agreement reached

I am very disappointed that we have been unable to reach an agreement with the Toronto Civic Employees' Union Local 416 (CUPE) and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 79.

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 by locals 416 and 79.

As things stand, members of locals 416 and 79 will not be on the job today. I know that this will inconvenience Torontonians in many different ways.

I am asking residents and businesses to be as patient as possible while a resolution to the strike is pursued.

The cooperation of everyone will be needed.

The City has committed to maintaining those services that ensure the health and safety of Torontonians and protect our most vulnerable.

Police, fire and TTC services remain unaffected by this disruption. And although impacted by the work stoppage, emergency medical services will continue to operate and clients who currently receive Ontario Works benefits will continue to do so without interruption.

Most other regular services will be either reduced or cancelled during this time and I regret the hardship this will place on our residents.

For a complete list of our contingency plans, please visit www.Toronto.ca

While we will continue to negotiate with the union locals during a strike I want residents and businesses to know that we are working in their interests to protect the future of services in our City.

From the very start of bargaining the City has stated clearly that new collective agreements need to be negotiated based on three important principles:

  1. agreements must be fair to the City's employees;

  2. agreements must be affordable to Torontonians; and

  3. agreements must contain the changes necessary to permit the Toronto Public Service to deliver the best possible services to our City

Given the City's financial circumstances, the recession, the increasing demand for City services and the limited revenues of the City, these principles of bargaining made sense and still do.

The City is facing enormous budget challenges in 2009, 2010 and beyond.

The cost of providing services must be in balance with the revenues the City has available to pay the bills.

I again want to thank our negotiating teams and I know they share my disappointment at not reaching an agreement.

The negotiating teams are committed to continuing to work hard until an agreement is reached.

While reaching a negotiated settlement was the objective of our bargaining we must ensure that any settlement is truly fair and affordable - and we will continue to work with the unions on achieving that goal.

City workers provide incredibly valuable services - many of them 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Everyone recognizes the value of City services and the contribution they make to our quality of life.

We look forward to resolving the matter as quickly as possible.

Links

City of Toronto Info

Union Info

The outside workers were holding talks at the Delta Hotel in Scarborough at Highway 401 and Kennedy Rd., while the inside workers were negotiating at the Sheraton Hotel across from City Hall.

CityBlog Reports

STRIKE! from Spacing Toronto.

Mainstream Media Reports

Opinions / Editorials

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