[gei]

Although I pretty much expect Council to pass the new collective agreements tomorrow I received an additional two emails today with very detailed explanations as to why they are voting against the contracts from Councillors Cliff Jenkins and Peter Milczyn. I think that brings 14 "no's", 1 abstain, 10 undecideds and 6 yes votes for tomorrow. No reply from the balance (13) of City Councillors that I wrote to. I'd post the last two responses because I think they are quite interesting but I don't think that is appropriate on a public forum.
As reported on the 6pm Toronto news channels, Miller is going to be working the phones real hard tonight to assure these get through tomorrow.

I'm surprised that this isn't getting more coverage.. and that people are acting as if things are going to be back to normal tomorrow. It seems there is a very real chance that council might vote against the agreement tomorrow, and then, as the CUPE leaders themselves said, chaos would occur.

 

[Eug]

^ the Harris purge is a disaster we're still paying for, so I'm far from hoping for it.

Last I checked, Harris was never mayor of Toronto.

What we need is a pragmatic non-ideologue, but such people seem to be in short supply.

That would be ideal... Ideal to get a non-ideologue.

 

[Riverdale Rink Rat]

This isn't getting coverage b/c there's ZERO chance it happens

I'm surprised that this isn't getting more coverage.. and that people are acting as if things are going to be back to normal tomorrow. It seems there is a very real chance that council might vote against the agreement tomorrow, and then, as the CUPE leaders themselves said, chaos would occur.

City Council makes NDP backbenchers look like they have spines. There is zero chance this gets voted down.

 

[salvius]

Last I checked, Harris was never mayor of Toronto.

You know what I mean, consarn it!

That would be ideal... Ideal to get a non-ideologue.

And now you're blowing my mind.

 

[Automation Gallery]

It seems there is a very real chance that council might vote against the agreement tomorrow, and then, as the CUPE leaders themselves said, chaos would occur.

Is that not what has been happening for the past 37 days.

 

[cdr108]

I'm surprised that this isn't getting more coverage.. and that people are acting as if things are going to be back to normal tomorrow. It seems there is a very real chance that council might vote against the agreement tomorrow, and then, as the CUPE leaders themselves said, chaos would occur.

Guess the union will have to look out for gun toting residents dropping off their garbage at the dumps ... there are more pissed off residents than striking union employees.

 

[Seymour]

You're laughing at the people who worked 80 hour weeks with a pay freeze to keep the city going while the union stood on the sidelines whining and watching? You're actually laughing at them. Unbelieveable.

Yes I am freely laughing at the non-unionized managers who now want more money, fair pay, raises etc when the non-unionized managers have precisely no organized means with which to achieve this. It's individualism vs. working together as a group. I hear so much talk of 'let's fire everyone in the union and privatize" when people are simply irate with the strike lasting so long, and many other things - the union and Miller are obvious targets.

Yes, I guess if we all just formed unions we'd all be richer. That's how it'd work, right? Pthththth. There's not enough wealth to go around paying all the least skilled workers $60k a year plus every benefit under the sun. There's just not, get over it. If everyone lived under those sunny circumstances, someone with the skills of say, a manager at the city of Toronto would have to be paid $200 000 or so, I'd guess.

Compare what you say to a global perspective and you get a lot of answers: There's not enough wealth to go around paying all the underdeveloped countries for their services/labour/products/natural resouces, there's just not, get over it. I think there IS, actually, there is enough wealth to bring everyone up to a minimum level, not many people / corporations have the urge to do so though.

 

[Seymour]

This is the first chaper in a long saga. Let's see how this works out if the provinces refuses to keep bailing out Toronto and the taxpayers balk at the massive tax and fee increases that are sure to come next year and for several years after that. Sooner or later, the unions will push the residents of this city to elect a mayor who will make Mike Harris look like an 80 year old Grandma who gave out candy-coated kittens to toddlers. Even the provincial unions were no where near this militant when Mike Harris got elected. Your smug attitude and that of the various picketers throughout this city is not something residents will forget any time soon.

Yes I agree. First chapter - long saga. This will encourage voters to go for a Mike Harris-type next election, sadly. It always bugged me about Harris that he claimed to be SOOOO responsible, SOOOO conservative with money when he essentially bankrupted Ontario and Toronto with the offloading of social services? How could this happen with such a responsible, common sense revolutionary?? Harris was wrong, so wrong.

 

[Seymour]

http://urbantoronto.ca/showpost.php?p=293583&postcount=415

I don't see the problem. I was mad at the strike that day. Just because I support Miller & his efforts doesn't mean I am not mad that my summer was wrecked by the strike. I think the unions did themselves (and Toronto residents) a real disservice by going out on strike at this time. Miller is an obvious target as Mayor, but I think he did the right thing over all in this complicated situation.

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

A couple of interesting pieces from The Globe & Mail, the last paragraph almost perfectly matches my email inbox

Facing attacks from the public and his council critics, an embattled David Miller lashed out at opponents who threatened that Friday they would vote against a deal to settle the municipal workers strike, even as the City of Toronto got ready to open for business for the first time in 39 days.

There is little chance that council will reject a tentative agreement that would give existing unionized workers wage increases and the option to keep a controversial sick-pay perk.

That didn't stop Mayor Miller from launching a blistering attack on his foes, particularly those in the right-leaning responsible government group, whose 11 members publicly denounced the deal Thursday as a “betrayal†of what had been promised to council and the public.

Mr. Miller said the group's complaint – that the deal city negotiators signed fell outside the bargaining mandate set by the labour and employee relations committee – is false and an “appalling†attack on city staff.

Councillors in the group, meanwhile, said constituents had bombarded them with more than 1,000 e-mails begging them to vote down the deal.

“The people of Toronto will not be distracted by personal attacks,†said Cliff Jenkins, a member of the group. “The people of Toronto understand that this is a bad deal.â€

Friday's council vote is expected to be held mostly in public, with a simple majority needed to endorse or reject the deal. The Globe and Mail contacted every councillor by e-mail Thursday to survey their intentions. Of 44 councillors, 23 responded: 14 said they would vote against the deal, six said they would vote yes, and three declined comment.

Source

 

[Second_in_pie]

Yeah, Miller's really getting bashed from all sides on this one. I was watching him on Rogers news (or something like that,) and he seemed to be making an attempt to counter criticisms and maintain control. Instead, it looked more like he was going to cry.

 

[afransen]

Yes I am freely laughing at the non-unionized managers who now want more money, fair pay, raises etc when the non-unionized managers have precisely no organized means with which to achieve this. It's individualism vs. working together as a group. I hear so much talk of 'let's fire everyone in the union and privatize" when people are simply irate with the strike lasting so long, and many other things - the union and Miller are obvious targets.



Compare what you say to a global perspective and you get a lot of answers: There's not enough wealth to go around paying all the underdeveloped countries for their services/labour/products/natural resouces, there's just not, get over it. I think there IS, actually, there is enough wealth to bring everyone up to a minimum level, not many people / corporations have the urge to do so though.

Bringing up the bottom 5 billion will involve bringing the top 1.5 billion down, and considerably. There is finite wealth, because the earth is finite, and overtaxed as it is.

 

[SimonP]

Here is an interesting chart I found. It's from the provincial OMBI and compares the average cost per tonne of picking up garbage. As I understand it almost every city in Ontario today contracts out garbage collection. Toronto is currently slightly below the median cost for the province.

 

[Hydrogen]

Not all garbage is collected by city workers in Toronto. Comparing costs between cities is interesting, but the graph tells little about private versus public service costs.

 

[Automation Gallery]

Yeah, Miller's really getting bashed from all sides on this one. I was watching him on Rogers news (or something like that,) and he seemed to be making an attempt to counter criticisms and maintain control. Instead, it looked more like he was going to cry.

Deep inside Miller is a whimp.