The Moss Park garbage dump has opened. No more basketball playing for a while.
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City Workers Strike 2009
- Thread starter gei
- Start date
S
Seymour
Guest
I am sooo dismayed by the lack of coverage on this in the news media. HOW are the talks progressing? When will this strike end???
Yes the no garbage pick up is inconvenient, but the temporary sites have been set-up (there's that whole issue of the dump sites being located in parks, but many of Toronto parks were dump sites before they were parks, note the off-gassing valve in Duffern Grove Park)
But the biggest shame for me is the no splash pools in this hot weather for the kids. Total drag. And the no day camps. I signed my son up in MArch for a 2 week camp session, he was really looking forward to it and now I have to attempt to explain a strike to a 6 year old.....and explain why there's no camp and no splash pools. The worst is all of those temporary workers, mostly university students, highschool students, will not benefit form anything that is negotiated in this strike. Their temporary or contract workers, so not eligible to retire 50 years from now.
In the meantime, I'll have to pay for full time childcare for those two weeks I had scheduled the camp for, my costs are going through the roof.
This is a joke. End this strike now. Why isn't there more public outrage at this.
Yes the no garbage pick up is inconvenient, but the temporary sites have been set-up (there's that whole issue of the dump sites being located in parks, but many of Toronto parks were dump sites before they were parks, note the off-gassing valve in Duffern Grove Park)
But the biggest shame for me is the no splash pools in this hot weather for the kids. Total drag. And the no day camps. I signed my son up in MArch for a 2 week camp session, he was really looking forward to it and now I have to attempt to explain a strike to a 6 year old.....and explain why there's no camp and no splash pools. The worst is all of those temporary workers, mostly university students, highschool students, will not benefit form anything that is negotiated in this strike. Their temporary or contract workers, so not eligible to retire 50 years from now.
In the meantime, I'll have to pay for full time childcare for those two weeks I had scheduled the camp for, my costs are going through the roof.
This is a joke. End this strike now. Why isn't there more public outrage at this.
S
Seymour
Guest
The illegal dumping infuriates me. As soon as the strike began, these sketchy contractors working at a house on my street immediately dumped all of their construction waste in the city-owned back alley. Construction companies are supposed to haul their own waste to a depot and pay to dispose of it. These sketch-artists just dumped it, knowing they would soon flip the house and be gone. I called the City, Access Toronto line, which has farmed out their answering service somewhere far away and made note of this illegal activity. Of course nothing will be done. People are taking advantage of this in any way they can and everyone's getting burned for it.
I heard the Chair of Green 13 suggest that we make the Green P lots the dump sites for garbage, but NOOOOOO the cars won't have anywhere to park was the useless argument against this. Give me a break. I am feeling so cynical right now.
Even the bike lanes which are part of a city-wide plan are stymied as they progress, businesses complain that consumers will only buy if they use a car to get there.....then the whole community gets enraged when the idea to re-route bike lanes is suggested.
The no splash pools and no parks programming for the summer is a DRAG.
We get through the months of winter for this ??????
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Mr.Colley
Active Member
I know how bad this has affected Windsor, I can't say so for Toronto, But kudos for them for 2 things, One sealing up the public garbage bins, and two, at least having people staff the lines. I will try to post a few pictures tomorrow of what the garbage cans here look like. Its disgusting. And the illegal dumping is running rampant here as well, I will try to get some shots of that for tomorrow as well. I hope for your guys sake CUPE backs off quickly...
dt_toronto_geek
Superstar
I took my dog swimming at Cherry Beach today and it was surprisingly clean. I was mindful of looking for garbage and didn't see hardly any except around a few people who were sunning on blankets, but I presume they picked it up and deposited it when they left. There was a lot of off white stuff everywhere, maybe from trees or bushes nearby - I don't know what it was but it wasn't garbage. I also noticed that garbage containers were available as usual, they weren't sealed off and had plenty of room to deposit garbage in. Go figure.
My downtown neighbourhood is also very clean, there's some garbage but nothing really out of the ordinary. Most garbage receptacles have had the plastic ripped off now and they are overflowing, many with garbage laying around them but that's about it.
Not bad for day #6.
Click on the thumbnail to enlarge, then click again on the image for full size.
My downtown neighbourhood is also very clean, there's some garbage but nothing really out of the ordinary. Most garbage receptacles have had the plastic ripped off now and they are overflowing, many with garbage laying around them but that's about it.
Not bad for day #6.
Click on the thumbnail to enlarge, then click again on the image for full size.
Mr.Colley
Active Member
Wow dt, Not only is that awesome to hear. But those are some nice pic's. I wouldn't mind visiting that beach myself. 
adma
Superstar
Went to the Ingram Transfer Station at 4:00 this morning. No lineup, no problem, no harassment at all (then again, I wasn't looking for trouble)
metroland
New Member
Ingram
I went to Ingram too but during the day (stupid me) and it was being blocked off by some of the stikers. They told me and the others in line that we could dump all our garbage at 1135 Caledonia, even my old furniture and recycling which I knew was a complete lie (which they knew). It really sucked that they even had to mislead some old nonnas and make them drive around on a wild goose chase just to get their point across.
I went to Ingram too but during the day (stupid me) and it was being blocked off by some of the stikers. They told me and the others in line that we could dump all our garbage at 1135 Caledonia, even my old furniture and recycling which I knew was a complete lie (which they knew). It really sucked that they even had to mislead some old nonnas and make them drive around on a wild goose chase just to get their point across.
dt_toronto_geek
Superstar
Wow dt, Not only is that awesome to hear. But those are some nice pic's. I wouldn't mind visiting that beach myself.
Cherry Beach was pretty dumpy & neglected until it was restored and re-naturalized maybe 8 years ago, and work continues. It's a great kept secret, rarely is it very busy. TTC runs a bus from the s/e corner of Bay & Front every 20 mins. on Sat/Sun which travels through lower St. Lawrence Market & Distillery District and it takes you to within steps of the beach in about 10 minutes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry_Beach
Mr.Colley
Active Member
Well Dt, Suffice to say, Should I make it up that way I will be visiting there for some time. Would love to get some pic's myself. Hope it stays that way for ya though...
Urban Shocker
Doyenne
Bundled up the two weeks' supply of rotting, suppurating, malodorous household food waste that I'd been accumulating in the basement for the past two weeks real good and took it on the 505 this morning. Sat behind a woman wearing strong, cheap perfume, and got off at Sherbourne. Walked down to Moss Park and handed in my little gift baggie to the two nice men on duty.
Glancing, en route, into that church on the south east corner of Sherbourne and Dundas I noticed the lovely old stained glass windows at the east end, and made a mental note to return to look at them more closely one day.
Glancing, en route, into that church on the south east corner of Sherbourne and Dundas I noticed the lovely old stained glass windows at the east end, and made a mental note to return to look at them more closely one day.
unimaginative2
Senior Member
What the strike means for David Miller
Even if the mayor succeeds, the city faces budget shortfalls, a possible tax hike, and the prospect of a Mike Harris-like backlash
Adam Radwanski
Toronto — Last updated on Monday, Jun. 29, 2009 08:01AM EDT
The Globe and Mail
Shortly after his party had been punted from its one term of power, the first NDP premier in Ontario's history recalled the dark day he lost patience with the unions.
Bob Rae believed he had done as much as possible for organized labour, including banning the use of replacement workers during legal strikes. But in 1992, when he began signalling his government's intention to rein in costs, he was met with a vicious speech by Canadian Auto Workers president Buzz Hargrove, accusing the NDP of selling out.
Mr. Rae responded with a profanity-laced tirade. “Something in me snapped that day,†he wrote in his 1996 autobiography, From Protest to Power . “My resentment at the lack of perspective, the lack of solidarity, the absence of any sense of responsibility for the financial (and political) health of the government, the sense of a never-ending series of demands that would always be disappointed welled over. I lost it in that swearing match with Hargrove...â€
David Miller is experiencing his Bob Rae moment of truth. If the first quasi-NDP mayor in the brief history of the amalgamated city of Toronto hasn't yet lost it with a union leader, he soon might.
After years of labour-friendly policies, Mr. Miller has backed into a fight with striking indoor and outdoor workers – a scrap he would clearly prefer not to be in, as evidenced by his uneasiness crossing picket lines. But his quandary is unavoidable – if not due to the potential swarm of right-of-centre challengers for next year's mayoral election, then because his city is simply out of money.
In the 11 years since the provincial government merged Toronto's six former municipalities while forcing them to pay for more social programs, the city has faced an annual struggle to balance its budget. But its mayors have been able to stick to their campaign promises – a tax freeze for Mel Lastman, spending increases for Mr. Miller – by relying on bail-outs from the province.
That well is drying up. Dalton McGuinty's government, already committed to absorbing the cost of some city-funded social programs, faces its own large deficit. It also wants to make specific infrastructure investments for which it receives credit. And there are many within the Premier's circle – including, by some accounts, the Premier himself – who have grown weary of Mr. Miller's act.
Any other year, this would be a problem. Heading into 2010, it's a potential catastrophe. Recession costs, notably increased demand for welfare payments caused by rising unemployment, mean that the prediction of a $350-million budgetary shortfall may actually be optimistic.
Mr. Miller's fight with Locals 79 and 416 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represent garbage collectors, daycare workers, and various other municipal employees, is his first attempt to confront this reality. “From a fiscal perspective, it absolutely is a watershed moment,†says Carol Wilding, the chief executive officer of the Toronto Board of Trade.
Denzil Minnan-Wong, one of several conservative city councillors who might run against Mr. Miller in 2010, can scarcely contain his glee. “This mayor and council have been putting it off,†he says of cutting expenditures. “And the economic recession has basically told the city that you can't put it off any longer – your day of reckoning has arrived.â€
Mr. Miller badly needs a symbolic victory to set a precedent and prove his commitment to restraint. The problem is that there is little chance his organized-labour friends will yield.
No union leader who wishes to keep his job will give up a hard-won benefit such as the ability to carry over and eventually cash out up to 18 sick days per year – the hot-button issue of the dispute. Workers won't clamour to accept a pay freeze after watching other city employees receive three per cent raises. If anyone blinks, it will be Mr. Miller.
Even if the province eventually legislates the strikers back to work, CUPE might emerge with the upper hand. Arbitrators do not typically resolve labour disputes by taking away benefits unions won in previous negotiations.
They also rely on what other unions are settling for these days, which would probably mean pay raises. So Mr. Miller would emerge from a lengthy work stoppage with very little to show for it, except the annoyance of Torontonians.
Unless Mr. McGuinty could be persuaded to bail out the city yet again, the city would enter next year's budget season in an appalling state, its shortfall having been increased rather than diminished by the new deal.
Mr. Miller would then face a whole range of unpalatable options in an election year. Raise taxes, again? Cut program spending? Conduct a fire sale of assets?
For Mr. Miller, the consolation prize should be demolishing the union in a public-relations battle – one union leaders aren't really bothering to fight, because they only need the support of their own members. But Mr. Miller isn't really bothering to fight it, either; often, as when issuing stern warnings to residents about dumping their garbage, he seems as much on the side of the strikers as the rest of the city.
It is admirable that Mr. Miller does not wish to compromise his principles by union-bashing. It is also self-destructive.
Sneaking into City Hall through back doors does not convey a sense of ownership. He declines to be interviewed for articles such as this one, for fear of souring negotiations. (So, too, does Shelley Carroll, the chair of council's budget committee.)
His rivals – with the notable exception of John Tory, the former Progressive Conservative leader considering a second run at the mayoralty – are not so circumspect.
“He has not been standing up every day talking with the people of Toronto about what this strike means,†says Karen Stintz, another councillor jockeying to be the flag bearer for the centre-right. “I don't know what he wants from this. He's not been visible, and he hasn't told us.â€
If labour leaders looked at the big picture, they might consider where this is headed. Their battles with Mr. Rae not only helped defeat him, they also helped elect Mike Harris, who took union-busting measures Mr. Rae would not have dreamed of. Were they to throw Mr. Miller a bone, they might help avoid a municipal equivalent of the same phenomenon.
Mr. Rae, for one, is not optimistic about a win for the Mayor. “It's hard to see CUPE culture changing much – concessionary bargaining is not something they wi accept,†he says now. “Read From Protest to Power. It's all in there.â€
Even if the mayor succeeds, the city faces budget shortfalls, a possible tax hike, and the prospect of a Mike Harris-like backlash
Adam Radwanski
Toronto — Last updated on Monday, Jun. 29, 2009 08:01AM EDT
The Globe and Mail
Shortly after his party had been punted from its one term of power, the first NDP premier in Ontario's history recalled the dark day he lost patience with the unions.
Bob Rae believed he had done as much as possible for organized labour, including banning the use of replacement workers during legal strikes. But in 1992, when he began signalling his government's intention to rein in costs, he was met with a vicious speech by Canadian Auto Workers president Buzz Hargrove, accusing the NDP of selling out.
Mr. Rae responded with a profanity-laced tirade. “Something in me snapped that day,†he wrote in his 1996 autobiography, From Protest to Power . “My resentment at the lack of perspective, the lack of solidarity, the absence of any sense of responsibility for the financial (and political) health of the government, the sense of a never-ending series of demands that would always be disappointed welled over. I lost it in that swearing match with Hargrove...â€
David Miller is experiencing his Bob Rae moment of truth. If the first quasi-NDP mayor in the brief history of the amalgamated city of Toronto hasn't yet lost it with a union leader, he soon might.
After years of labour-friendly policies, Mr. Miller has backed into a fight with striking indoor and outdoor workers – a scrap he would clearly prefer not to be in, as evidenced by his uneasiness crossing picket lines. But his quandary is unavoidable – if not due to the potential swarm of right-of-centre challengers for next year's mayoral election, then because his city is simply out of money.
In the 11 years since the provincial government merged Toronto's six former municipalities while forcing them to pay for more social programs, the city has faced an annual struggle to balance its budget. But its mayors have been able to stick to their campaign promises – a tax freeze for Mel Lastman, spending increases for Mr. Miller – by relying on bail-outs from the province.
That well is drying up. Dalton McGuinty's government, already committed to absorbing the cost of some city-funded social programs, faces its own large deficit. It also wants to make specific infrastructure investments for which it receives credit. And there are many within the Premier's circle – including, by some accounts, the Premier himself – who have grown weary of Mr. Miller's act.
Any other year, this would be a problem. Heading into 2010, it's a potential catastrophe. Recession costs, notably increased demand for welfare payments caused by rising unemployment, mean that the prediction of a $350-million budgetary shortfall may actually be optimistic.
Mr. Miller's fight with Locals 79 and 416 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represent garbage collectors, daycare workers, and various other municipal employees, is his first attempt to confront this reality. “From a fiscal perspective, it absolutely is a watershed moment,†says Carol Wilding, the chief executive officer of the Toronto Board of Trade.
Denzil Minnan-Wong, one of several conservative city councillors who might run against Mr. Miller in 2010, can scarcely contain his glee. “This mayor and council have been putting it off,†he says of cutting expenditures. “And the economic recession has basically told the city that you can't put it off any longer – your day of reckoning has arrived.â€
Mr. Miller badly needs a symbolic victory to set a precedent and prove his commitment to restraint. The problem is that there is little chance his organized-labour friends will yield.
No union leader who wishes to keep his job will give up a hard-won benefit such as the ability to carry over and eventually cash out up to 18 sick days per year – the hot-button issue of the dispute. Workers won't clamour to accept a pay freeze after watching other city employees receive three per cent raises. If anyone blinks, it will be Mr. Miller.
Even if the province eventually legislates the strikers back to work, CUPE might emerge with the upper hand. Arbitrators do not typically resolve labour disputes by taking away benefits unions won in previous negotiations.
They also rely on what other unions are settling for these days, which would probably mean pay raises. So Mr. Miller would emerge from a lengthy work stoppage with very little to show for it, except the annoyance of Torontonians.
Unless Mr. McGuinty could be persuaded to bail out the city yet again, the city would enter next year's budget season in an appalling state, its shortfall having been increased rather than diminished by the new deal.
Mr. Miller would then face a whole range of unpalatable options in an election year. Raise taxes, again? Cut program spending? Conduct a fire sale of assets?
For Mr. Miller, the consolation prize should be demolishing the union in a public-relations battle – one union leaders aren't really bothering to fight, because they only need the support of their own members. But Mr. Miller isn't really bothering to fight it, either; often, as when issuing stern warnings to residents about dumping their garbage, he seems as much on the side of the strikers as the rest of the city.
It is admirable that Mr. Miller does not wish to compromise his principles by union-bashing. It is also self-destructive.
Sneaking into City Hall through back doors does not convey a sense of ownership. He declines to be interviewed for articles such as this one, for fear of souring negotiations. (So, too, does Shelley Carroll, the chair of council's budget committee.)
His rivals – with the notable exception of John Tory, the former Progressive Conservative leader considering a second run at the mayoralty – are not so circumspect.
“He has not been standing up every day talking with the people of Toronto about what this strike means,†says Karen Stintz, another councillor jockeying to be the flag bearer for the centre-right. “I don't know what he wants from this. He's not been visible, and he hasn't told us.â€
If labour leaders looked at the big picture, they might consider where this is headed. Their battles with Mr. Rae not only helped defeat him, they also helped elect Mike Harris, who took union-busting measures Mr. Rae would not have dreamed of. Were they to throw Mr. Miller a bone, they might help avoid a municipal equivalent of the same phenomenon.
Mr. Rae, for one, is not optimistic about a win for the Mayor. “It's hard to see CUPE culture changing much – concessionary bargaining is not something they wi accept,†he says now. “Read From Protest to Power. It's all in there.â€
christiesplits
Senior Member
Bingo... the unions should really count their blessings. I think Miller is far from the rah rah pro-union mayor he is portrayed to be (certainly with this current strike), but he does warrant their existence. I'm sure public sector unions would have gladly returned to the Rae Days after the shelling they received under Harris.
Glen
Senior Member
If there was any wonder what was behind all those "Build Toronto" and "Invest Toronto" announcements in the last while, Adam Radwanski's sheds light on it....
The trend continues of hiding the true cost of city spending.
The trend continues of hiding the true cost of city spending.
unimaginative2
Senior Member
Harris was a terrible premier, especially for Toronto and especially after he completely ran out of ideas or interest in the job in his second term, but at least a couple of the things he did could have been helpful. Harris' cuts gave the City of Toronto an external force to blame for tough decisions to reduce its costs. Unfortunately, not once did Toronto take any kind of serious look at improving the efficiency of its operations. Instead, it just used short term accounting fixes and raids on its reserves to make it through the cash crunch. This isn't a Miller issue. In many ways, Lastman was worse. Not only were wage settlements exceedingly generous, but growth in employment has never let up. Mergers have a lot of problems, but they certainly do result in savings on redundant staff. Instead, staffing levels increased following amalgamation. Remember that the federal government laid off 45,000 civil servants in its battle against the deficit. I'm not saying the City of Toronto should take actions like that, but it shows the sacrifices that all other levels of governments made while Toronto just demanded bailouts from the province and the feds.