City Council Repudiates Ford Budget and
Deals Blow to Mayor’s Austerity Agenda for Toronto
Our campaign is working! City Council repudiated the Mayor’s budget agenda Jan. 17, by supporting the motion by Councillor Josh Colle to restore $15 million in cuts by using part of the 2012 surplus. Cuts to TTC routes, community pools, daycares, shelters and more were saved.
…but Libraries still face cuts
A separate amendment moved by Councillor Raymond Cho reversed a further $3.9 million in cuts to the library budget that was approved by Ford’s Executive Committee last week.
Thanks to Councillors Vaughan, Carroll, Doucette, Davis, Tam-Wong, McConnell, Lindsay Luby, Colle, Matlow, McMahon, Bailao, Lee, Mihevc, Layton, Fragedakis, Augimeri, Filion, Fletcher, De Baeremaeker, Perks and Perruzza who all supported the Cho motion.
Credit our campaign for this victory! Together with library users, we fought off cuts to library branches and hours, saving 61 jobs in the process. We also fought off further cuts to programming and outreach and to the collections budget.
The total cut to the 2012 TPL budget is still 5.9 per cent, or $10 million. This means we are still facing a cut of 107 full-time equivalent positions. These cuts will affect our services.
All told, there has been a 17-per cent cut in library staffing since amalgamation, resulting in longer wait times, more technology replacing human interaction and assistance for our library patrons, and heavier workloads for staff.
“Outing” the City’s Hidden Agenda
Only last fall, Mayor Ford was talking about a $774-million budget shortfall, but when the real number surfaced, it turned into a $154 million surplus — a switch of almost $1 billion over three months!
Last week, the City flatly rejected CUPE Local 416’s offer of a three-year wage freeze, in return for reduced cuts to City services and status-quo on collective agreement rights. It was a telling moment in this round of bargaining: It’s not about the money, after all.
Local 416’s offer blew away the last of the smoke that hovers over the Mayor’s so-called budget “crisis” and revealed his real hidden agenda: An attack on job security provisions to pave the way for more widespread cuts and contracting out to private companies.
Mayor Ford’s supporters on City Council don’t like to be too specific on what service is next on the block. They fear it will provoke a fire-storm of public reaction, just as it has with the proposed cuts to libraries. Not that it will stop them -- so long as they have the votes on Council -- but it may slow them down a bit.
That’s why they repeat the so-called “jobs for life” line to describe the job security provisions in our collective agreement. It’s a mantra that seems to work well with the public -- at least until people think about it.
No work means no job
The truth is, no one’s job is ever totally safe, and library employees are no different. If there’s no work, there’s no job -- it’s that simple.
Our Collective Agreement provides assurance that employees who do their jobs won't be subject to arbitrary actions by the employer. And it offers a redeployment process that requires management to honour our seniority, our wages through the process, and our dignity.
Job security is a basic tenet of unionization – it’s the big reason why people join unions. In fact, our contract language is similar to that of most other union contracts across Canada. Negotiated between union and management over many rounds of bargaining, job security clauses express our mutual loyalty to the library system and reward our years of service.
This benefits the TPL and the residents who rely on libraries, just as much as it does those who work in them. The public doesn’t want libraries staffed by a revolving-door of low-wage workers. The TPL is not McDonalds.
Countdown for Local 416
Most of the media focus is now on Local 416 (City outside workers) negotiations, which started bargaining before the other CUPE locals. The City has asked for a “no board” report on Local 416 bargaining, which will soon start a countdown to a possible lockout deadline in early February.
Bargaining has only just begun for Local 4948, with dates set into February. Local 79 (inside workers) has bargaining dates to the end of the month; bargaining has yet to start for Local 2998, representing the association of community centres.
Toronto Together:
Solidarity Will Let Us Defeat Ford’s Labour Disruption Agenda Too
The four CUPE locals have been working closely together along with CUPE National to mount a united front against the mayor’s labour disruption agenda. CUPE National released an Environics poll showing majority public support for maintaining City services. CUPE will also launch a new series of television ads Jan. 19, highlighting some of the important work we do and calling for fair contract negotiations. See the ad at torontotogether.ca and watch for more
In solidarity,
Maureen O’Reilly
President
On behalf of your TPLWU Local 4948 Bargaining Committee:
Brendan Haley, Viveca Gretton, Carmela DeGiorgio, Mary Bissell, Samee-Lee Grossman,
Brian Raymer and Karen Smith
On behalf of your TPLWU Local 4948 Executive Mobilization Team:
