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HISTORIC STRIKE BY 20,000 TORONTO CIVIC WORKERS
PV Ontario Bureau
(This article is from the April 16-30/2000 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.)
TORONTO - The 20,000 members of CUPE Local 79 made history on March 31, as the largest municipal local in Canada to go on strike. By April 10, union members were anxiously awaiting details of a tentative agreement.
Local 79 was forced to take strike action when the City refused to refer nine outstanding issues to arbitration, including the most important one: wage harmonization.
Although the province amalgamated the City of Toronto in 1998, job classifications throughout the old municipalities have still not been merged, creating huge discrepancies in salaries. For example, a needle exchange counsellor from Etobicoke makes $12,000 less than co-workers from the former city of Toronto who do exactly the same job.
As part of the amalgamation, workers in CUPE locals in the city went through a representation vote forced by the Harris government's Bill 136. After a bitter dispute, two locals emerged; outside and library workers chose Local 416, while inside workers maintained a separate local under the 79 banner.
Local 416 members gained a new collective agreement last October, without taking strike action. Many outstanding issues, including wage harmonization, were referred to arbitration under the terms of the negotiated settlement.
From the beginning of the negotiation process, the city has ignored the unique characteristics of the predominantly female Local 79. Wage gains made during the pay equity battles of the early 1990s are in danger of being rolled back if the city refuses to address wage harmonization.
Other issues under dispute are job security provisions, part-time workers' rights, benefits, promotions and layoff/recall language. Having had strong employment security language for 24 years, Local 79 is demanding that under any restructuring plans, workers are guaranteed 42 months of wage protection. Job security language is an absolute necessity to discourage privatization and contracting out. The city has also refused to acknowledge seniority in recall/layoff provisions.
Included in the newly constituted Local 79 are 8000 part-time recreation staff, the majority of whom were not previously unionized. The city's refusal to acknowledge seniority of part-time workers in assigning hours and scheduling is a key issue standing in the way of a negotiated settlement. The Chief Administrative Officer, Michael Garrett, made it quite clear that the city's intention in negotiations was to create conditions conducive to the casualization of the workplace. Greater protection for part-time workers is essential to create stable and secure working conditions.
The city has taken a hard-line approach with the local, proving as mean-spirited as any employer in the private sector. Mayor Mel Lastman has outdone his normally outrageous self by spearheading a campaign to belittle and ridicule the workers who deliver the City's public services. In a particularly vindictive act, the Mayor refused to allow CUPE National to pay for the premiums for City workers on strike, to maintain their medical and health benefits, including life-sustaining prescription drugs. CUPE National President Judy Darcy confirmed that the City's refusal to allow the union to pay the premiums is the first time in Canada that a municipal employer has been so rigid.
From the beginning of the strike it was apparent that Local 79 would have to defend itself in both words and action. "The strike won't be very long," said the head of City security at one location. "You're just a bunch of ladies who won't be able to hold the lines."
By the end of week one on the lines, the women of Local 79 had come through. Women had negotiated protocols at transfer stations throughout the city, tying up garbage collection for days. Jeanne McGuire, Local 79 site coordinator for the Dufferin Transfer Station, was nicknamed "Mean Jeanne" by the picket line managers after negotiating one of the toughest protocols in the city. Local 79 women routinely climbed up to the truck cabs to explain the strike issues to drivers.
Management was quick off the mark trying to divide inside and outside workers. This strategy was also quick to fail, as Local 416 proved to be the biggest supporters of Local 79's strike action. Local 79 members earned the respect of Local 416 members, who walked the lines in support, providing firewood, coffee and encouragement.
One of the most talked about issues on the lines, from both 79 and 416 members, is the need to revisit the idea of one united local. Grassroots support for unity should be respected by the leadership of both locals when the strike is settled. Unity should not be forced through a takeover of one local by another. Instead, there should be a negotiated process to build a new local, based on democratic involvement of the membership. Anything less would compromise the unity that has already begun on the picket lines.
The strike action has also gained the support of the community. The Metro Network for Social Justice organized a picket line rally on April 3, which had originally been scheduled as a teach-in on the City budget process. Over 150 activists from a wide cross-section of the community participated in the picket line educational. Speakers from the Coalition for Better Childcare, the Environmental Alliance, Toronto and York Region Labour Council and other groups were unanimous in support of CUPE Local 79's resistance to the effects of forced amalgamation.
Whatever the outcome of the negotiated settlement, this historic strike action will have major ramifications within Local 79, and on the fightback in the City.
Newly organized recreation part-timers, many of them young and enthusiastic, have had a major influence on picket lines across the city. Hundreds of members have come to realize that the fight for fairness and equity goes beyond the picket line, and many have agreed to be more active in the day to day activities of the local.
Not least, many new activists in the community and on the picket lines have heard the rallying cry for this fall's municipal election. The most popular chant on the lines: "Who's votin' for Mel in the next election? - NOBODY!"
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