Toronto appears to be headed for another messy, smelly garbage strike like it did back in 2002 as little progress was reported Sunday in talks to reach a labour deal.
One of the unions representing City of Toronto workers who are facing the strike deadline at midnight says it is not close to reaching a deal with City Hall.
But the union President says the union would negotiate if the city comes up with "a serious offer."
CUPE Local 79 President Ann Dembinski cited what she called "the city's stubborn unwillingness to remove a large number of concessions from the bargaining table."
A strike could happen as early as 12:01 a.m. tonight and would affect garbage pick up, paramedics, city-run daycare and other services.
The union says it wants the same deal for its members that other unionized city workers have already received.
Both sides said they wanted to avert job action but Mark Ferguson, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 416, which represents outside workers, said he wasn't hopeful as the two sides were far apart.
"(The city is) pushing us to a situation where we would return to a bitter climate that existed back in 2002," Ferguson said.
The City of Toronto said a strike is unnecessary and it is prepared to negotiate past the strike deadline to reach a contract with the two unions representing its outside and inside workers.
While the city does not want a strike, it cannot simply agree to all of the unions' requests to avoid one, said city spokesman Kevin Sack, adding agreements must be fair to the employees but Toronto residents must be able to pay for the services.
"We need to make sure those collective agreements are affordable. There are limits," he said.
The recession, said Sack, is only adding to the city's budget crunch.
"During a recession, the demands for city services go up, while the revenues available to pay for those services usually goes down," Sack said.
Some progress had been made in talks with the union for inside workers, however Sack said but more work had to be done to get a deal.
The outstanding issues for the outside workers included sick leave, seniority and recall rights in the event of layoffs.
Three-year contracts for Local 416 and the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 79 expired Dec. 31. The first union represents about 6,200 outside workers and the second about 18,000 inside workers.
A media blackout had been in place for the talks between the city and Local 79. Although it was lifted Sunday, the city declined to discuss much about the discussions.
Some 24,000 city workers caused a major disruption when they last went on strike for two weeks in the summer of 2002.
Mounds of rotting garbage quickly piled up throughout the city's neighbourhoods and parks.
Parks, recreation staff, daycare workers, water inspectors and ambulance dispatchers were also all off the job.
The strike only ended after Ontario's three political parties unanimously passed back-to-work legislation during an special one-day sitting.
--With files from the Canadian Press
