City of Toronto workers take step towards possible strike with no board report request

CUPE Local 79 says the city has refused to engage in meaningful negotiations. CTV News Toronto’s Natalie Johnson reports.

The union representing 30,000 City of Toronto inside workers has requested a “no-board” report from the province, starting the clock on possible job action.

“We will not be bullied. Toronto residents support fair wages for workers who provide essential services that they rely on every day,” Nas Yadollahi, CUPE Local 79 president, told reporters on Friday morning.

CUPE Local 79 represents city workers in various public services including public health, city hall operations, ambulance dispatch, court services, child care and long-term care. In January, more than 90 per cent of city workers voted in favour of a strike mandate in what the union says was a historic turnout. They did not provide actual voter turnout numbers.

Once the no-board report is issued, it starts a 17-day countdown to the union being in a legal strike position

The biggest sticking point for the union is better wages amid rising inflation, with the union saying they are underpaid and undervalued.

“City workers have endured years of stagnating wages, increasing workloads in the most expensive city in Canada while senior management remains amongst the highest paid,” Yadollahi said.

Toronto offers wage increases

Speaking to reporters hours later, City Manager Paul Johnson said the city is offering a nearly 15 per cent wage increase over the next your years.

“This four year agreement will allow the city to plan budgets and operations for that period, and has the added benefit of providing stability for our workers and their families in what are continuing to be uncertain economic times, and made even more uncertain by recent events south of the border,” Johnson said at a news conference on Friday afternoon.

Johnson then went on to say they have been at the bargaining table daily, making it clear to the union that they will continue to show up “if that’s what it takes.”

“I really do believe that the focus over this next period of time needs to be about being at the table, having the discussions at the table, and getting us to the agreement that we need to be,” Johnson said.

Yadollahi has previously said 43 per cent of part-time recreation workers are paid minimum wage while 94 per cent of them are paid less than $26 an hour. A living wage in the Greater Toronto Area, as laid out by the Ontario Living Wage Network (OLWN), is $26 per hour.

On Friday, Johnson said the city put down a proposal that would make sure 92 per cent of all part-time recreation hours would be paid above minimum wage, offered to discuss special wage adjustments for key positions, and municipal standard offers to ensure these jobs remain competitive because the city is “not willing to see an exodus of people from this organization simply based on the fact that we are not competitive.”

To make this happen, Johnson says, they all need to be at the bargaining table.

“We’ve worked with the Ministry of Labour and their conciliators, and we’ve worked with them to try and make sure that we can stay at the table. Local 79 has been coming to the table and I just want to encourage everybody to be at the table,” Johnson said.

The city pointed to their recent success with their outdoor workers, Local 416, who won a 14.65 per cent wage increase over the next four years. Yadollahi says they want their own deal.

“This is a city that is clearly out of touch with the realities of everyday working Torontonians,” the union president said.

With files from CTV News Toronto’s Natalie Johnson and CP24’s Joshua Freeman