Members of a union representing Toronto’s outside workers have voted in favour of a strike should ongoing negotiations with the city prove unsuccessful.
According to a press release, members of CUPE 416 turned out in “large numbers over the last two days” to “deliver a very strong mandate” in favour of the action.
The vote comes just days after the leadership of CUPE 79, the union representing the city’s inside workers, announced that its members had given it a strike mandate.
The breakdown has not been released for either vote.
“We are very gratified by what can only be described as a very strong vote for a strike mandate,” Matt Alloway, a member of the CUPE 416 bargaining committee, said in a press release issued late Wednesday night. “With this mandate, we are confident that we are in a position to negotiate an agreement that can strengthen the city’s services by providing the workers who deliver those services with good, stable jobs.”
Last month the city asked the Ministry of Labour to appoint a conciliator in its negotiations with CUPE 416, paving the way for a potential work stoppage.
Though an impasse would have to be declared and a no-board report would have to be issued by the province before a strike or lockout could actually take place, Alloway said his union felt it necessary to hold a strike vote at this point because they are “concerned that the city is choosing to take an aggressive approach to bargaining."
“We hope that our members’ strong show of support for their bargaining committee will encourage the city to negotiate a fair deal with us,” he said.
Both CUPE 416 and CUPE 79 have been without a contract since their last one expired on Dec. 31.
In 2011 when both unions were last without a contract negotiations broke down on several occasions and at one point the city threatened to unilaterally impose the terms of its final offer on employees. That situation, however, was ultimately avoided when both unions came to last-minute deals with the city ahead of a midnight deadline.
Speaking with reporters following an announcement at a shelter on Thursday, Mayor John Tory said he isn’t concerned about what may lie ahead for the city.
“We don’t know the magnitude of the strike mandate but it doesn’t matter. Receiving and getting a strike mandate is a customary part of what goes on with the negotiating process,” he said. “The discussions go on and the goal remains the same which is to arrive at a fair agreement.
And by fair I mean one that is fair to the people who work for the city but also fair to the circumstances in which the city finds itself in. As you know we are not in a situation in which we have an awful lot of money.”
Tory refused to comment on CUPE 416’s assertion that the city is taking an “aggressive approach” to bargaining on Thursday but he did say that talks have been ongoing with the union since late 2015 and that city is proceeding in good faith.
“Talks been taking place in a way that I think is quite appropriate, which is out of the glare of the media by and large where people can sit at the table and have an honest discussion about what are some very serious issues facing the city,” he said.
CUPE 416 represents about 6,000 municipal; workers, including snow plow operators, garbage collectors, park staff and other outside workers.
CUPE 79, meanwhile, represents another 20,000 municipal employees that work inside.
