City of Toronto and inside workers reach tentative deal to avert strike

Toronto parents are breathing a sigh of relief as city-run March Break camps and childcare centres will be open next week after a tentative deal was reached between the City of Toronto and the union representing its inside workers.

Both parties announced the deal in separate news releases issued early Saturday morning ahead of the Monday midnight strike deadline.

“This outcome stands as a direct result of City workers standing up in historic ways for the public services they take immense pride in delivering,” said the union, which represents employees from public health, city hall operations, ambulance dispatch, court services, childcare and long-term care.

Details of the tentative contract will be shared after members and city council ratify it.

Wages have been the main contention at the bargaining table. The city offered scrapping minimum wages and pay increases for childcare workers, personal support workers and registered nurses. At the baseline, the city’s bargaining team said it offered a 14.65 per cent wage increase over the next four years.

The union suggested it made further gains beyond the city’s initial wage hike offer.

“City workers refused to be treated as interchangeable,” CUPE Local 79 President Nas Yadollahi said in a statement.

“This was about more than just wages—it was about respect. Our members made it clear that they would not accept a deal that failed to recognize the unique value of their work and the diversity of our union.”

Mayor Olivia Chow said she was grateful that an agreement “that recognizes and respects” inside workers was reached.

“City workers serve hundreds of thousands of Torontonians daily and help build a caring city,” she said in a statement.

City manager Paul Johnson, who led the bargaining team, said he was pleased with the agreement.

“It was improved significantly by the suggestions of the union in terms of what mattered for their members, and so that was the work that takes days to get through. And ultimately, at the end of this evening, we got there,” Johnson said during an early morning news conference.

The deal averted a strike that would have closed recreation centres, cancelled March Break camps and closed city-run learning and childcare centres.

The city said 4,800 children are enrolled in the city’s March Break programming.

With files from CTV News Toronto’s Alex Arsenych