Part-time Recreation Workers Reach Deal with City

Strike/lockout averted as remaining inside workers agree on new contract with the City; ratification vote will be held on Tuesday.

By Hamutal Dotan

“There was an adjustment to their approach and to the details of their offer.”

With those words Tim Maguire brought an entire season of labour unrest in Toronto to an end. Earlier this week members of CUPE 79, representing approximately 23,000 inside workers (who staff everything from City Hall to daycare), voted on an offer that had been extended by the City. Union leadership did not recommend acceptance—their way of signalling dissatisfaction with the terms in that contract. Two of the four bargaining units within CUPE 79 accepted those terms, however, while the other two rejected it. Of the two that rejected it, one (representing workers in long-term care facilities) provides an essential service, and will enter into binding arbitration. The other—the part-time recreation workers—re-entered talks with the City, and as Maguire told press a few minutes ago, reached a deal. Coming on the heels of a settlement with library workers, and another with CUPE 416 (representing outside workers) earlier this year, this means that the City now has deals with all of its major bargaining units, and fears of a major labour disruption have been put to rest.