Decisions in two large Ontario municipalities result of bitter strikes; political posturing
First Windsor, now Toronto. For the second time, a large Canadian city is privatizing garbage collection on the heels of a drawn-out strike by municipal workers.
Toronto’s city council recently voted in favour of contracting out garbage collection on the west side of Yonge Street by 2013, a move that will eliminate 300 city jobs. In 2009, those workers walked the picket line for 39 days as piles of trash built up around the city.
Mayor Rob Ford and several councillors say privatization would avoid any future disruption and save the city close to $8 million a year (a figure disputed by the union). Councillors add they have the public onside. A survey of 500 Toronto residents by Ipsos-Reid found 61 per cent supported the plan.
The privatization trend in Toronto follows a decision last year in Windsor to contract out garbage collection. Windsor’s outside workers also went on strike in 2009. The bitter dispute lasted 101 days before a three-year agreement was reached. One year later, the city privatized garbage and recycling services, eliminating 43 jobs.
CUPE national president Paul Moist says the situations in Windsor and Toronto are “concerning” but not cause for alarm.
“Less than one per cent of CUPE’s 3,900 collective agreements covering 608,000 members end in dispute,” he says. “But when it happens, it’s high profile. A strike in the public sector of any duration is controversial.”
Moist notes that the Ipsos-Reid poll was conducted on behalf of the Ontario Waste Management Assn. CUPE’s own research prior to the Windsor vote found many citizens had misgivings about privatization.
According to the poll by Angus Reid, 76 per cent of residents were satisfied with the municipal service and 63 per cent didn’t trust private operators.
Moist has no regrets about the strikes in either city.
“People still really value our service,” he says.
CUPE is also claiming a partial victory in the Toronto decision. While council voted 32-13 to start the bidding process, an amendment to the motion requires the city manager to conduct an “independent review” of private bids to verify they would be cheaper than city collection.
Moist adds people shouldn’t read too much into the Toronto and Windsor situations which he describes as “similar and different.”
He says Toronto’s mayor was elected “on an angry platform to shake things up,” and although the strike in 2009 caused “consternation” on the part of citizens, council is dealing with long-term fiscal problems as a result of amalgamation in the 1990s.
In Windsor, the strike came in the midst of the recession when thousands of autoworkers were being laid off. Moist accuses the new council of using the labour dispute as a distraction from more pressing problems.
“It was nine parts political, one part service delivery,” he says.
CUPE recently attempted to organize employees at Turtle Island Recycling, the private company that took over Windsor’s garbage and recycling services. Three-quarters of workers voted against joining the union.
Local CUPE members suspect there was undue influence on the vote because it was the workers who contacted the union.
“We were disappointed the vote did not succeed,” says Moist.
He says the Toronto and Windsor decisions will not alter CUPE’s strategy going forward.
“The right to strike is part of the freedom to collective bargaining,” he says. “Do people exercise that right to strike responsibly? Yes.”
Moist says the union’s “norm” is strong relationships with other municipal councils, and most agreements are settled “without fanfare.”
He’s not concerned, either, that Toronto — as Canada’s largest city — will be a beacon to smaller municipalities looking for cost savings.
“The number one job security measure for CUPE is that the public values the work that we do,” he says.
