City of Toronto Strike Affects More Than Garbage Pick Up

by John Laforet
posted on June 18th, 2009 at 10:13:44 am

The City’s 57 daycare centres with their 3011 child care spots will be closed. Parks and Rec Day Camps will not start. Community Centres, Toronto Island Ferry Service and other important aspects of recreation will be cancelled as well. City Museums, art galleries and cultural facilities will be closed. All special event permits will be cancelled for civic squares.  

The City will not be monitoring water quality at City beaches. There will be no restaurant inspections. Healthy pregnancy and healthy baby appointments will be cancelled. Municipal sexual health clinics will be closed. 

There is more, but these are the ones, I felt are probably most impactful to most people after a quick read through. Here is the City of Toronto’s Contingency Plan. 

Garbage pick up is more complicated than the headlines would suggest. In Etobicoke for instance there is no impact as Etobicoke has contracted out garbage pick up. Curbside pick up will be cancelled in all other sections of the City. Apartment’s and other high density residential buildings will continue to have garbage service.

The City will be asking residents who usually have curbside pick up to hang on to their waste for the first week, and then bring garbage to transfer stations around the City, while keeping recyclables at home until the strike is over. For more on Garbage Collection click this link. 

It’s pretty clear a strike of municipal workers will have a big impact on the quality of life in Toronto very quickly. It’s fair to say that neither the City nor the workers wants to see a strike happen, but unfortunate that the negotiations have gotten this polarized. The unions have a strong strike mandate and have been clear they will not accept the City’s proposal for sick leave. Considering wages and other matters aren’t on the table because the City has taken the position that until the union’s buckle on sick leave the rest isn’t worth discussing, a strike seems unavoidable. 

The impact a strike will have on families and the vulnerable is great. It is important that the City recognize this as they push on an issue the unions have stated no intention of budging on, instead of discussing the issues where common ground and a collective agreement can be found. To me, Toronto’s priority should be avoiding a strike, and if the City were to pull this one issue off the table, an agreement could easily be reached that would see a continuation of services without any labour interruptions. 

What has become clear is the issue of sick pay benefits is controversial and one that is better solved over the long term through a series of discussions between the workers and management and that pushing it right now will result in likely defeat for the City and an otherwise unnecessary strike.