City union offers 3-year wage freeze as lockout looms

File photo of City Hall. CITYNEWS.CA/Shawne McKeown.

Toronto Civic Employees’ Union (TCEU) Local 416 would accept a three-year wage freeze from the city, its leader said Friday as a lockout looms for city outside workers.

“A wage freeze for our members would contribute $8.5 million each year and $25.5 million over three years to Toronto’s budget,” said president Mark Ferguson, whose Local 416 represents 8,000 members.

“We are ready to sign [Saturday] an agreement that continues the current terms and conditions of our collective agreement.”

The estimated savings, Ferguson said, are based on a typical two per cent wage increase for public employees across Ontario. Eliminating that increase would give the city $25.5 million over three years, he said.

Ferguson said that council would be meeting next week to discuss the city's budget, and suggested the savings could be used to keep splash pools and recreation centres open.

The wage freeze might not be enough to avoid a lockout.

"There’s changes to the contract that we need to get to efficiencies to allow us flexibility to do the work that we do and to save the taxpayers money. We’re the most constricted municipality in all of Canada and we want to change that," deputy mayor Doug Holyday said Friday.

"These things are better discussed at the table. I don’t want to go through the media,” he told reporters.

Negotiations between management and their union hit an impasse Thursday, with the city filing a No Board report with the Ontario Labour Relations Board.

If the Board approves the report, both the city and Local 416 can take action after 17 days. The city could lock out its staff, and the union would be in a legal strike position.

Services like garbage collection and snow removal would be affected.

At issue is the “jobs for life” clause, guarantees that employees with 10 years or more on the job will remain employed by the city in some capacity if their position is contracted out to the private sector.

It does not mean that an employee cannot be fired or cannot lose their job for another reason.

The city wants to eliminate that clause from the contract, while the union wants to keep it.

Local 416 represents approximately 8,000 outside workers. Contracts governing members of Local 416, CUPE Local 79 and Local 2998 — about 32,500 employees in total — expired on Dec. 31, 2011.

Collective bargaining with Local 79 continues and negotiations with Local 2998, which represents community centre workers, have not yet begun.  Local 79 has about 18,000 members and is responsible for the operation of over 130 recreation centres in the city as well as child care programs and long-term care facilities.

A No Board Report is a notice that the government will not appoint a conciliation board to settle a collective bargaining dispute