The city is ‘very close' to getting a deal done with a union representing public library workers, says the chair of the city's library board.
Coun. Paul Ainslie made the comments during an interview with CP24 Thursday afternoon.
"We are very close on the issues that I have seen and I don't think there is anything that we can't solve at the negotiating table," he said. "I think both sides realize how important of a role libraries play right across Toronto. We just need to find that middle ground in the labour negotiations that we can both be happy about."
About 2,300 library workers represented by CUPE Local 4948 will be eligible to walk off the job at 12:01 a.m. on Sunday after the Ontario Labour Relations Board approved their request for a ‘no board' report earlier this month.
The workers, who have already voted overwhelmingly in favour of a strike, have in the past cited job security and part-time worker rights as the major roadblocks preventing a new deal from being ratified.
On Thursday Ainslie said the city has no intention to lock out library workers and is hopeful that CUPE Local 4948 will not exercise their legal right to strike, so long as talks are ongoing.
Both the city and CUPE Local 4948 were at the table Thursday.
"The last three or four times that we have had contract negotiations we have actually kept talking and kept the libraries open past the strike deadline," Ainsli said.
On Wednesday library workers held a rally outside the Toronto Reference Library to bring attention to their key issues in negotiations with the city.
Following the rally CUPE Local 4948 President Maureen O'Reilly told CP24 that the city has failed to recognize her union as a "different and unique" bargaining unit.
"More than 50 per cent of our members are part time and struggling to make a living and we just can't have a city template imposed upon us," she said.
CUPE Local 4948 has been without a contract since midnight on Dec. 31.
