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Toronto - Members of the Toronto Civic Employees’ Union, Local 416 (CUPE) will vote on Wednesday and Thursday (June 12th and 13th) on whether to give their bargaining committee a mandate to call a strike. Following the issuance of a “no-board” report last week, the union will be in a legal strike position as of June 24th, 12:01 a.m., if no agreement with the City has been reached by that time.

Our members know that these contract negotiations are about issues that are vital to them, like contracting out and privatization, job security, layoff and recall provisions. They also fully understand the relationship of their work to the quality of public services in the City of Toronto,” said Brian Cochrane, president of Local 416.

The City’s plans to contract out key services are completely linked to their attack on our employment security. They want to be able to sell the jobs of experienced, long-term city workers to the lowest possible bidder. We know what that will mean for the citizens of Toronto: higher costs and cuts in service,” said Cochrane.

“We do not want to go on strike. But we intend to prepare for that possibility, and it may come to that if the City continues to try and force its workers to bear the brunt of wrong-headed policy decisions,” Cochrane added.

Local 416 represents 9, 500 workers in Toronto, including water/wastewater workers, paramedics (EMS), solid waste workers, parks and recreation workers, corporate services and transportation workers, library and housing workers.

CUPE represents half a million working women and men in Canada, many of whom work in the municipal, school board, health care, and university sectors.

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For further information:
Andrea Addario, CUPE Communications,
(416) 738-4329 (cell)