01) TORONTO OUTSIDE WORKERS VOTE ON TENTATIVE DEAL
By Liz Rowley
On Feb. 5, the City of Toronto and Local 416 CUPE announced a tentative agreement that 6,000 outside workers will be asked to ratify. The terms had not been made public at PV press time, but the city's Feb. 2 final offer included a base wage increase of 1.75% in 2015, preceded by three lump sum payments of 1.25% in the first year; 1.50% in the second year, and 1.75% in the third year; job security provisions would only apply to permanent employees with 22 years or more of seniority; the city gets the unilateral right to make shift changes; plus reductions in sick days and in optical and dental benefits.
The union had offered in January to roll over the existing collective agreement, effectively freezing wages for three years. Local 416 President Mark Ferguson said the union did not want to strike, and wanted to negotiate a settlement and continue to deliver uninterrupted city services to residents. On the crucial issue of job security, which Mayor Rob Ford has called "jobs for life", the union offered to give up job security for employees with five years seniority or less.
A mass campaign by Ford and the right‑wing on Council, together with the business and financial sector, has vilified the 30,000 unionized city workers for months with lies and distortions, suggesting that they live the life of Riley, with high wages, perks galore, and the hash‑tagged "jobs for life".
The reality is that about 15,000 city workers are part‑timers, most without any benefits, and many paid not much over the minimum wage.
Deep budget cuts and contracting out of garbage collection in the western half of the city had already factored in hundreds of job losses. Local 416 warned that the City was pushing for a lock‑out and aimed to gut their collective agreement. Ferguson called it union‑busting.
On Feb. 3, the City announced it would impose new terms and conditions of work starting at 12:01 am on Feb. 5, when the old contract was no longer legally in force. The new terms and conditions would be those laid out in the City's final offer. But at 8 am on the 5th, after extending bargaining through the night, the tentative agreement was announced.
Nothing is settled until the 6,000 members of Local 416 debate the details of the tentative deal, and cast their vote for or against. Their decision will set the pattern for bargaining with the three other Toronto Locals, and the overall results will ripple through municipalities across the country.
If they reject, CUPE members will almost certainly be on the picket lines within days, either on strike or locked out, where they could be joined by other Locals within a couple of weeks.
Either way, their decision will impact on the 24,000 city workers still in bargaining, including Local 79 (inside workers), the much smaller Local 4849 (Public Library Workers), and a fourth local representing about 100 workers.
If Local 416 votes to accept, the city will present the deal as the pattern the other Locals want to overturn. If they reject, the ante goes up for a united and coordinated fight by all the city Locals, who could be pounding the pavement together for a while.
Maureen O'Reilly, President of Local 489, said she doesn't want the Toronto Public Library to be turned into Walmart: "I'm facing a 17% staff cut. Fifty percent of my members are part‑time workers, many of them with no benefits, and some of them with low‑paid work. I don't want the TPL to become the Walmart of public libraries."
During the City Budget fight, the Mayor and his brother Councillor Doug Ford vowed to close library branches "in a heartbeat", but were forced to settle for reduced hours and staffing. Mass public opposition and author Margaret Atwood were crucial in defeating the worst of the cuts, which is encouraging for Library workers, who were seeking conciliation as PV went to press.
Local 79 was still in talks, but all Locals reported that the City was refusing to negotiate key issues pending a final settlement with the outside workers.
So far the Mayor is declaring it a "great day ‑ a fantastic day ‑ for taxpayers", by which he means the banks and financial institutions infesting the downtown core, and the big corporations in the suburbs. Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday claims the deal was achieved as a result of the city's hard bargaining positions. But homeowners and tenants are about to lose many more services if the Mayor has any more "great, fantastic days".
There needs to be a united front of labour and its allies around these Locals, tying their rights and living standards to the level of good services in the city. The budget battles brought the public out in droves, once they understood what they were about to lose.
A January poll showed that 84% of those surveyed want the city to maintain or increase spending on services over the next four years. That link has its opposite which must be exposed: contracting out and privatization, which is all about profits and getting less while paying more.
Doug Ford himself said he (and Mayor Rob) wanted to contract out everything that wasn't nailed down in Toronto. This is how they're doing it. Stay tuned.
(The above article is from the February 15-29, 2012, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)