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Torontonians must ask, What’s Ford’s Real Agenda?’
says CUPE Ontario President Fred Hahn
TORONTO, Ont. The only reason Toronto doesn’t have a TTC no strike deal this morning is that Rob Ford doesn’t want one, says CUPE Ontario President Fred Hahn, after City Officials effectively scuttled an attempt yesterday between the TTC and its three unions to negotiate a deal based on the unions’ proposed agreement for the 2011 contract bargaining.
We provided an agreement that would have maintained continuity of service for the citizens of Toronto and the City and the TTC refused to agree, said Gaetano Franco, President of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 2, which represents about 500 signal maintenance, electrical and communications workers at the TTC.
The move comes just one day after negotiators for the city rejected a guarantee from Amalgamated Transit Union 113 that the Union representing 95 per cent of workers there would not strike during this round of bargaining.
“There is only one reason why Toronto does not have a TTC no strike deal this morning: Rob Ford doesn’t want one, said Fred Hahn, President of CUPE Ontario.
The Unions offered a deal, The TTC responded that they wanted a deal, The Ontario Ministry of Labour sent its officials to assist in reaching a deal, Toronto City Officials came in and torpedoed the whole process. As Torontonians we must now ask ourselves: What is Rob Ford’s real agenda? he added.
In addition to the developments at the TTC, it was also revealed in the Toronto Star this week that Toronto Hydro bosses hired private investigators to spy on a Health and Safety Representative, and the Mayor announced plans to privatize garbage collection west of Yonge Street.
This is not an isolated incident. It’s part of a broader political attack on your friends and neighbours, people who want to do a good job, and want to make their community better, said Hahn.
The City and the TTC have now called all the unions and said they want to commence bargaining. How can you commence bargaining when you haven’t even established the ground rules? asked Franco.
We know this script, and we know what happens when the Rob Fords and the Mike Harrises and the Tim Hudaks of Ontario think they can behave like bullies. We don’t get better communities. We don’t get a better Toronto. We get failing water systems, crumbling roads, overcrowded hospitals and underfunded transit systems, said Hahn.
The stakes are too high for our community to allow Rob Ford and Tim Hudak to tear down Toronto. That’s why CUPE Ontario is committed to mobilizing its members, their friends and their neighbours here in Toronto and across Ontario to stand up to bullies like Rob Ford, and to put them on notice that every Torontonian deserves to be treated with respect, he added.
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For more information, please contact:
Fred Hahn President, CUPE Ontario 416-540-3979
Kevin Wilson CUPE Communications 416-821-6641
