Posts Tagged ‘Toronto’
Blaming Workers Isn’t a Sound Plan to End a Strike
David Miller should know better. He’s the Mayor after all. You can’t blame workers for a strike when the City demands for concessions is the sticking point. The strike isn’t about wages, it is entirely about concessions. Concessions workers voted overwhelmingly to reject. Concessions that coming from City Council re-define hypocrisy.
David Miller is as defiant about re-opening his own entitlement to a pay increase as he is about refusing to budge in negotiations with workers.
The City’s position will not withstand arbitration, and the Mayor knows it. His strategy at this point can best be described as a ‘starve them out’ approach to labour relations. By allowing the strike to go on indefinitely, the Mayor and Council hurt all Torontonians, especially the vulnerable. They hurt the workers who lose 2% of their annual income with each passing week (4% has already been lost).
The Mayor has ruled out asking for ‘back to work legislation’ – his out if he seriously wanted the strike to end. He doesn’t. That’s the problem. Back to work legislation would mean the City losing on the sick pay issue. His Council’s ability to find $400 million in less than 24 hours, totally discredits the argument that $250 million being paid out over 20 years would somehow harm the City’s financial position.
There isn’t an arbitrator in the Ministry of Labour that would side with the City’s position. The Mayor knows it, so do the workers. Ladies and Gentleman this Mayor, and this Council have brought you a summer without pools, day camps, trips to Centre Island, garbage pick up, or access to all the municipal services covered by the doubling of the land transfer tax, promise breaking property tax increases and new fees like the vehicle registration. You’re paying the bills and getting nothing for it.
I agree with David Miller that ‘enough is enough’. He can end the strike.
He needs to pull the sick pay issue off the table; strike a three year collective agreement and form a working group made up of union reps and city officials to explore alternatives to the sick pay issue over the course of the three year collective agreement with the aim of introducing an alternative both sides agree to in advance for the next round of talks.
That would end the strike, get workers back to work, get garbage out of our parks, and parking lots and go a long way to finding a financially sustainable solution that works for both management and workers. That should the the Mayor’s priority. Unfortunately – he and his Council peers have decided to effectively ‘strike’ in solidarity with their workers – canceling all of their responsibilities until workers go back.
Boy are they lucky they have a four year term, otherwise it is my belief many heads would roll this fall – who knows, next fall could still see the same result.
21 Comments »Toronto's New LRT Vehicles An Example of Smart Decision Making
Toronto’s investment in transit is certainly valuable for Toronto but also has the potential to be economically valuable to other areas of the province that have been hurting over the last number of years. It is no secret that even before the widespread, much discussed ‘economic crisis’ Ontario’s manufacturers were hurting and workers had lost 300 000 jobs. Many in the labour movement, and on the political left have been calling for ‘buy in Ontario’ policies to better leverage government spending to aid our economy.
The Bombardier LTR deal is a perfect example of how we can and should use an unofficial buy in Ontario policy, that will give us to benefits of buying local without the political or economic risks that a formal policy has. Bombardier’s selection will mean jobs in Thunder Bay and around the province for parts manufacturing and depending on where Bombardier opts to source it’s materials from, it could also mean a local demand for local supplies.
This is $1.2 billion well spent and what’s more it’s about $500 million cheaper than the next bid, meaning even without the local benefit one could make the financial case for the purchase. I am hopeful the City of Toronto, Ontario and Canadian governments will recognize the importance of finding opportunities like these to encourage production of Canadian resources and manufacturing where possible and continue to award contracts not just on narrow merit of that individual project, but also on the spin off effects it can be seen to have on our economy. What’s more when Toronto relies on the Provincial and Federal governments to pick up 2/3rds of a large infrastructure bill, it is politically wise to ensure there is a broader benefit to be felt by the Province and the Country.
It is important that this be done sensitively, without the appearance of local favouritism or specific requirements being built into the request for proposal that would contravene existing trade agreements. In the Bombardier contract award, I think the City of Toronto found an ideal way of dodging the politically messy and economically dangerous issues of ‘buy local’ policies. They were still able to extract the benefit of such a policy, and for that, I’m sure many thousands of non-Torontonians are happy, especially the folks in Thunder Bay, who probably love Toronto’s rail transit system better than even many Torontonians do, simply because the strong economic benefit their community has seen from our investments.
As someone who relies on public transit and my feet to get around, I know I too am looking forward to the big investment in LRT’s and while Transit City may still leave Scarborough inadequately covered with subway stops, the LRT systems going East will make rapid transit more accessible for hundreds of thousands, and especially those in some low income communities.
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Ward 43 Child Care Subsidy Update
I received a response to my questions from Children’s Services at the City on August 13 regarding the status of child care subsidies. The response was very thorough and seemed to be quick for what had been asked.
The City has in fact lowered the number of childcare subsidies Ward 43 children are entitled to. This is because child poverty has increased from an average of 29% to 32% across the City between 2001 and 2006. The increase across the City has caused a re-allocation of some of the childcare subsidy spaces.
The only good news is that children who currently have subsidies do not lose them, but as children come out of the system the spots are re-allocated to other areas within the City.
The childcare subsidy vacancies in Ward 43 are spots that are open and can be utilized by any resident in the City who has a subsidy. The idea is that parents should be able to find the most convenient childcare option for themselves whether or not it is in their community of residence.
Graphs made available within Toronto’s Report Card on Children indicate that child poverty has decreased in some areas of Ward 43; predominately in lower density areas, while increasing in high density, low rent areas. The increases in child poverty in Ward 43 have been as a result of intensification, meaning areas that already had rates of child poverty over the city average, have seen the increase. Intensification of child poverty has a huge social impact on children and our community as a whole. With increased intensification, we put additional strain on community schools and risk further isolation of communities most in need of additional resources and supports.
It was surprising to see that child poverty had increased within Toronto during the 2001-2006 period as the Daily Bread Food Bank had noted that child hunger between 2003 and 2008 fell from 27% to 13% (hunger is defined by not eating at least one day per week).
I would encourage you to take a look at fact sheet two from the Report Card on Children if you’re interested in having a more detailed understanding of some of the more surprising aspects of the growth of child poverty in our city.
With the fall fast approaching, it is my hope that the Provincial Government’s poverty reduction strategy will specifically address poverty intensification and the impact this intensification has on our city and particularly those who face poverty without adequate assistance from any level of government. I’d also like to see any level of government commit to ensuring at least children from families who live below the low income cut off have access to subsidized, licensed daycare.
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