Toronto City Council voted 21-17 this week to endorse a new contract with the 30,000 city workers who have been on strike for 39 days.
And although the garbage is being picked up, a political stink is being raised about how the situation was handled. The strikers themselves suggested throughout the strike that the public should be blaming the political leadership, with some claiming he has alienated his key supporters in the labour movement.
But the biggest emerging controversy out of the new agreement is that workers on strike actually gained sick days while on the picket line.
Although Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong said it was a “a slap in the face to Torontonians,†deputy mayor Joe Pantalone suggested in was a slightly more complicated picture, with City spokesman Kevin Sack saying these type of agreements were standard.
The backlash potential in any public worker strike has some questioning the roles of unions in our society today.
Fortunately this summer was not as hot (and messy) as the 2002 strike. But many are hailing the residents of Toronto as the real heroes of this latest local labour dispute for the way they demonstrated patience while both sides finally came to an agreement.
Getting paid $26 per hour for a job that requires no skill or training is a pretty sweet deal.
I’m sure that if the City of Toronto was to privatize the service they could cut the workforce by a factor of 4 and still save money, not to mention the private sector would no doubt do a better job of it.
Why don’t they NOT tell us who to blame but just do their jobs? If $26/hr doesn’t satisfy them, they should all get fired and have new people, who are willing to do the job without complaining. They are all selfish, greedy bastards.
It was the 18 days of paid sick leave they were allowed to accumulate and cash out that started the whole ordeal. Miller, as is his nature….caved in again to the unions.
Workers could accumulate up do 6 months of pay. (Granted, if you are sick for a total of 6 months over your “career” as a garbage man….you had better have leukemia) If you’re sick 18 days of the year with head colds, sneezes..etc..etc…..
you can claim up to $25,000 (6 mos X 40 hrs per week at a rate of $26 per hour)
Now we have 30,000 Unionized garbage men entitled to 30,000 X $25,000 = $748,800,000. Yep…mayor Miller is sure looking out for the Toronto taxpayers.
Good grief…..scrap all unions. They’re mostly leeches and parasites.