本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛No quick end to city strike
Provincial parties fail to reach deal on speedy return
By Theresa Boyle and Richard Brennan
Queen's Park Bureau
It could be another two weeks before the city's municipal strike is over after MPPs failed to reach agreement on back-to-work legislation last night.
And it could be another week after that before piles of rotting garbage are removed from Toronto streets.
That is the worst-case scenario after a deal collapsed that would have sent striking city employees back to work quickly.
The provincial government will today introduce legislation to end the labour dispute by nearly 25,000 municipal workers that has closed pools, disrupted services and left garbage piled in parks and streets.
But it is expected the NDP will delay its passage up to two weeks. The delay means the heaps of garbage that have plagued the city will still be around when the Pope visits later this month for World Youth Day.
"If they (the NDP) want to drag it out, it could be easily two weeks plus," a visibly angry Conservative House leader Chris Stockwell said when asked how long it could take to pass the back-to-work legislation.
"The shame of it all is that the people will suffer," he said.
About 6,800 outside workers, members of CUPE Local 416, walked off the job June 26 and about 18,000 inside workers, members of CUPE Local 79, followed suit on July 4. Job security is the main issue.
There have been no talks between the unions and the city since the weekend and there was little movement before that when there were talks.
The two CUPE locals have accepted the city's offer of a 9.27 per cent wage increase over three years. But there's been no agreement on who should have job security, which provides protection from layoffs due to privatization during the contract.
Deputy Mayor Case Ootes said last night he thought the city could still be ready for the papal visit.
"I think we can fix the city up fairly quickly. Most of the areas (to be visited by the Pope) can be cleaned up in two or three days and hopefully we'll have the workers back long before then," Ootes said.
Whenever the strike ends, it could be weeks before the city is completely back to normal.
Once the workers are back on the job, "clean up, then catch up," will be the motto, said Barry Gutteridge, the city's works and emergency commissioner.
With workers concentrating on tidying temporary garbage sites, illegal dumps, parks, and areas that need cleaning for the papal visit or other special events, Gutteridge said that it will likely be several weeks before garbage and recycling trucks will be pulling up outside homes on the scheduled days.
After a full day of haggling yesterday, talks among the three provincial parties fell apart over the process of choosing an arbitrator. All-party agreement was essential to ensure speedy passage of back-to-work legislation.
Stockwell had hoped the bill could have been passed today, allowing striking workers to be back on the job at midnight tonight.
But he called off the talks, saying there was no more time to waste.
He charged that New Democrats, represented by NDP House leader Peter Kormos, had no interest in quickly ending the strike.
"Mr. Kormos' position clearly became delay, delay, delay, delay until we couldn't do that," he said.
"All I asked is that we get to pick the arbitrator and all the other issues we agreed to with Mr. Kormos ... and he said `No.' So in my opinion this was politically motivated, designed to slow the process down," he said.
At issue was who should have "residual authority" to name an arbitrator or mediator if the city and its union can't agree on appointing an individual.
Stockwell insisted the government have that authority, but Kormos argued otherwise.
New Democrats claim the province is in cahoots with the city and that both levels of government want to privatize public services.
NDP Leader Howard Hampton said earlier this week his party would not be willing to give back-to-work legislation a speedy passage.
Kormos expressed fear a government-appointed arbitrator would be biased in favour of city management.
The NDP and CUPE want an arbitrator chosen from an "approved list of arbitrators" the province used prior to the Conservatives coming to power in 1995.
"The government has demonstrated a pattern of highly structured arbitrations. ... Many people perceive those as stacked decks when it comes to appearing before those arbitrators," Kormos charged.
Kormos blamed Stockwell for derailing the talks.
"Mr. Stockwell shut it down. He said he had no more time and wasn't prepared to discuss the matter any further," he said.
Kormos said his party's caucus will meet this morning to discuss its strategy. Among the issues to be discussed is whether New Democrats will consent to sitting through the weekend, he said.
Stockwell said that because an agreement could not be reached last night, the NDP and CUPE will end up getting less than if they had cut a deal.
"There was a win, win, win here. The problem with the NDP is that they want it all," he said.
The Conservatives will proceed with introducing their own back-to-work legislation today and it will allow the government to unilaterally name an arbitrator without first giving the union and the city an attempt to agree upon one, Stockwell said.
And it will include a provision for "final offer selection," a process that would restrict an arbitrator to choosing either the city's final offer of that of the union.
Stockwell advised Torontonians to phone the three New Democrats who represent city ridings to express their dismay. Those MPPs are: Marilyn Churley (Toronto-Danforth), Michael Prue (Beaches-East York) and Rosario Marchese (Trinity-Spadina).
Liberal House leader Dwight Duncan said political gamesmanship between the Tories and the NDP is to blame for the strike continuing for several more days.
"I don't understand what this game was all day today. This is obscene. Both sides are dug in too deeply,'' he said.
Duncan said it was clear the NDP was going to bat for CUPE and the Conservative government was representing the city's interests. Duncan said his party supports speedy passage of the legislation in the interest of protecting public health.
From the outset, prospects of a quick resolution were bleak as New Democrats dug in their heels and held out for a negotiated settlement.
Wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the CUPE logo, Kormos warned that only "under exceptional and spectacular circumstances" would the NDP give unanimous consent for speedy passage of the legislation.
Stockwell had initially put forth three pieces of draft legislation: one would see the government appoint an arbitrator; another would see the appointment of an "agreed-upon" arbitrator: and the third that called for "final offer selection."
The New Democrats — who are under increasing pressure from constituents to end the strike — came forward with a fourth proposed solution later in the day.
It was this one that three parties haggled over late into the night, initially expressing "cautious optimism" about its potential.
The proposal would see workers go back to work immediately while a "generally recognized and mutually acceptable" mediator-arbitrator was appointed.
Dr. Colin D'Cunha, the province's chief medical officer of health, set the wheels in motion for back-to-work legislation Tuesday night when he advised the government to consider taking action to "prevent a potential public health risk."
But New Democrats claimed "political interference" on the part of the Tories, noting Toronto's medical officer of health, Dr. Sheela Basrur had said Tuesday that there was no imminent health risk.
Stockwell denied that the government was under pressure to end the strike because of the upcoming visit by the Pope.
The only motivating force is public health and safety, he said.更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net
Provincial parties fail to reach deal on speedy return
By Theresa Boyle and Richard Brennan
Queen's Park Bureau
It could be another two weeks before the city's municipal strike is over after MPPs failed to reach agreement on back-to-work legislation last night.
And it could be another week after that before piles of rotting garbage are removed from Toronto streets.
That is the worst-case scenario after a deal collapsed that would have sent striking city employees back to work quickly.
The provincial government will today introduce legislation to end the labour dispute by nearly 25,000 municipal workers that has closed pools, disrupted services and left garbage piled in parks and streets.
But it is expected the NDP will delay its passage up to two weeks. The delay means the heaps of garbage that have plagued the city will still be around when the Pope visits later this month for World Youth Day.
"If they (the NDP) want to drag it out, it could be easily two weeks plus," a visibly angry Conservative House leader Chris Stockwell said when asked how long it could take to pass the back-to-work legislation.
"The shame of it all is that the people will suffer," he said.
About 6,800 outside workers, members of CUPE Local 416, walked off the job June 26 and about 18,000 inside workers, members of CUPE Local 79, followed suit on July 4. Job security is the main issue.
There have been no talks between the unions and the city since the weekend and there was little movement before that when there were talks.
The two CUPE locals have accepted the city's offer of a 9.27 per cent wage increase over three years. But there's been no agreement on who should have job security, which provides protection from layoffs due to privatization during the contract.
Deputy Mayor Case Ootes said last night he thought the city could still be ready for the papal visit.
"I think we can fix the city up fairly quickly. Most of the areas (to be visited by the Pope) can be cleaned up in two or three days and hopefully we'll have the workers back long before then," Ootes said.
Whenever the strike ends, it could be weeks before the city is completely back to normal.
Once the workers are back on the job, "clean up, then catch up," will be the motto, said Barry Gutteridge, the city's works and emergency commissioner.
With workers concentrating on tidying temporary garbage sites, illegal dumps, parks, and areas that need cleaning for the papal visit or other special events, Gutteridge said that it will likely be several weeks before garbage and recycling trucks will be pulling up outside homes on the scheduled days.
After a full day of haggling yesterday, talks among the three provincial parties fell apart over the process of choosing an arbitrator. All-party agreement was essential to ensure speedy passage of back-to-work legislation.
Stockwell had hoped the bill could have been passed today, allowing striking workers to be back on the job at midnight tonight.
But he called off the talks, saying there was no more time to waste.
He charged that New Democrats, represented by NDP House leader Peter Kormos, had no interest in quickly ending the strike.
"Mr. Kormos' position clearly became delay, delay, delay, delay until we couldn't do that," he said.
"All I asked is that we get to pick the arbitrator and all the other issues we agreed to with Mr. Kormos ... and he said `No.' So in my opinion this was politically motivated, designed to slow the process down," he said.
At issue was who should have "residual authority" to name an arbitrator or mediator if the city and its union can't agree on appointing an individual.
Stockwell insisted the government have that authority, but Kormos argued otherwise.
New Democrats claim the province is in cahoots with the city and that both levels of government want to privatize public services.
NDP Leader Howard Hampton said earlier this week his party would not be willing to give back-to-work legislation a speedy passage.
Kormos expressed fear a government-appointed arbitrator would be biased in favour of city management.
The NDP and CUPE want an arbitrator chosen from an "approved list of arbitrators" the province used prior to the Conservatives coming to power in 1995.
"The government has demonstrated a pattern of highly structured arbitrations. ... Many people perceive those as stacked decks when it comes to appearing before those arbitrators," Kormos charged.
Kormos blamed Stockwell for derailing the talks.
"Mr. Stockwell shut it down. He said he had no more time and wasn't prepared to discuss the matter any further," he said.
Kormos said his party's caucus will meet this morning to discuss its strategy. Among the issues to be discussed is whether New Democrats will consent to sitting through the weekend, he said.
Stockwell said that because an agreement could not be reached last night, the NDP and CUPE will end up getting less than if they had cut a deal.
"There was a win, win, win here. The problem with the NDP is that they want it all," he said.
The Conservatives will proceed with introducing their own back-to-work legislation today and it will allow the government to unilaterally name an arbitrator without first giving the union and the city an attempt to agree upon one, Stockwell said.
And it will include a provision for "final offer selection," a process that would restrict an arbitrator to choosing either the city's final offer of that of the union.
Stockwell advised Torontonians to phone the three New Democrats who represent city ridings to express their dismay. Those MPPs are: Marilyn Churley (Toronto-Danforth), Michael Prue (Beaches-East York) and Rosario Marchese (Trinity-Spadina).
Liberal House leader Dwight Duncan said political gamesmanship between the Tories and the NDP is to blame for the strike continuing for several more days.
"I don't understand what this game was all day today. This is obscene. Both sides are dug in too deeply,'' he said.
Duncan said it was clear the NDP was going to bat for CUPE and the Conservative government was representing the city's interests. Duncan said his party supports speedy passage of the legislation in the interest of protecting public health.
From the outset, prospects of a quick resolution were bleak as New Democrats dug in their heels and held out for a negotiated settlement.
Wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the CUPE logo, Kormos warned that only "under exceptional and spectacular circumstances" would the NDP give unanimous consent for speedy passage of the legislation.
Stockwell had initially put forth three pieces of draft legislation: one would see the government appoint an arbitrator; another would see the appointment of an "agreed-upon" arbitrator: and the third that called for "final offer selection."
The New Democrats — who are under increasing pressure from constituents to end the strike — came forward with a fourth proposed solution later in the day.
It was this one that three parties haggled over late into the night, initially expressing "cautious optimism" about its potential.
The proposal would see workers go back to work immediately while a "generally recognized and mutually acceptable" mediator-arbitrator was appointed.
Dr. Colin D'Cunha, the province's chief medical officer of health, set the wheels in motion for back-to-work legislation Tuesday night when he advised the government to consider taking action to "prevent a potential public health risk."
But New Democrats claimed "political interference" on the part of the Tories, noting Toronto's medical officer of health, Dr. Sheela Basrur had said Tuesday that there was no imminent health risk.
Stockwell denied that the government was under pressure to end the strike because of the upcoming visit by the Pope.
The only motivating force is public health and safety, he said.更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net