Glen
Senior Member
The one thing that I would like to see out of this strike is that the post strike cleanup is contracted out. There should not be an opportunity for those whom withhold there services to benefit (overtime) from it.
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City Workers Strike 2009
- Thread starter gei
- Start date
dt_toronto_geek
Superstar
No! No more garbage in the parks, they're a mess as it is!
androiduk
Senior Member
Has anyone else had their local park cleaned up? Norman Jewison Park which is between Gloucester and Isabella has had all garbage removed by someone.
salvius
Active Member
^ I'm actually shocked at how relatively clean the city is considering there is a strike going on. I'm thinking some people must be doing guerrilla cleaning.
fiendishlibrarian
Active Member
City managers are emptying park bins and clearing other debris using unmarked pick-up trucks. I've seen them at the park across from my building at least twice now. They even cut the grass on the ball diamond so the little league teams can continue their season. I'm also certain that groups of parents are cleaning the playground and other areas as well, as I walked through there last night on my way home, and it was pretty much spotless. Biked the Belt Line and Don Trails on the weekend, and it's clear the bins and illegal trash are also being picked up. Both trails looked suprisingly good aside from some over grown grass and weeds.
As for guerrilla cleaning, I've been taking down posters by the dozen near my home recently, and I think others are as well. It's amazing - and pathetic - to see the amount of spam that gets put up when these lowlife companies realize that the city isn't taking them down on a regular basis. I've also been picking up whatever litter I can as I walk around my area. I also get in touch with Stacey Electric and Toronto Hydro if I see any graffiti on traffic light boxes and light poles. There was also a bad outbreak recently of graffiti in my area on schools and bus shelters, and Astral Media and the TDSB got most of it cleaned up after I gave them detailed reports of the damage.
If this strike actually gets people more active and involved in their communities, and makes them aware of the ownership that they *must* take of their public realm, then all of this may actually turn out to be a good thing.
As for guerrilla cleaning, I've been taking down posters by the dozen near my home recently, and I think others are as well. It's amazing - and pathetic - to see the amount of spam that gets put up when these lowlife companies realize that the city isn't taking them down on a regular basis. I've also been picking up whatever litter I can as I walk around my area. I also get in touch with Stacey Electric and Toronto Hydro if I see any graffiti on traffic light boxes and light poles. There was also a bad outbreak recently of graffiti in my area on schools and bus shelters, and Astral Media and the TDSB got most of it cleaned up after I gave them detailed reports of the damage.
If this strike actually gets people more active and involved in their communities, and makes them aware of the ownership that they *must* take of their public realm, then all of this may actually turn out to be a good thing.
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Prometheus The Supremo
►Member №41+⅜◄
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- a strange reality, bizarro toronto
doesn't look that way to me. people are throwing bags of garbage out their car windows and/or doors to the side of the road.
kEiThZ
Superstar
http://www12.statcan.ca/census-rece...&SearchType=Begins&SearchPR=35&B1=All&Custom=
It's a few years old but at the bottom there are stats on income and earnings. This argument that $25 per hour is not above average will hopefully be put to rest now. Earnings in 2005 range averaged around 30.5k per year for adults. Allowing for inflation that's probably around 35k per year now. At 50K per year, our unionized trash collectors are doing quite well, while their non-union contracted counterparts are pretty much making par for the course. In both cases, these are still decent wages compared to the average and taking into account their limited education and skills requirements.
So from now on when we have a discussion about wage fairness, particularly in relation to these strikers, let's keep in mind how much those hard-working residents who help the city pay these wages actually make. Making residents who make half of what these guys make (if you consider the median income) pay more taxes to give these guys even higher wages and keep funding benefits that these folks could only dream off is wrong.
It's a few years old but at the bottom there are stats on income and earnings. This argument that $25 per hour is not above average will hopefully be put to rest now. Earnings in 2005 range averaged around 30.5k per year for adults. Allowing for inflation that's probably around 35k per year now. At 50K per year, our unionized trash collectors are doing quite well, while their non-union contracted counterparts are pretty much making par for the course. In both cases, these are still decent wages compared to the average and taking into account their limited education and skills requirements.
So from now on when we have a discussion about wage fairness, particularly in relation to these strikers, let's keep in mind how much those hard-working residents who help the city pay these wages actually make. Making residents who make half of what these guys make (if you consider the median income) pay more taxes to give these guys even higher wages and keep funding benefits that these folks could only dream off is wrong.
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dt_toronto_geek
Superstar
I was through there on Sunday, that must have happened Monday as all those parks were getting pretty bad.
I may take to some guerrilla cleaning myself in my spare time. Fresh air, good exercise and a good cause.
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dt_toronto_geek
Superstar
Good for these folks, they inspire me.
Strike reveals our apathy - and our urge to do good
Jul 08, 2009 04:30 AM
Noor Javed
STAFF REPORTER
Sam Mirzai stops next to an overflowing trash can at Mel Lastman Square and takes the last sip from his coffee cup. With one quick motion, he stuffs the cup into one of the already-jammed slots of the can, adding to the mess that has piled up since the city's garbage strike began 16 days ago.
"Where else can I put it?" asks Mirzai, as he quickly walks by. He knows there is a strike on and no one will be around to clean the bin. But that hasn't done much to change his behaviour.
A snapshot of our increasingly grimy city is proof enough that Mirzai isn't alone. Across the city, garbage bins are piled high with trash and streets are sprinkled with litter. Instead of reducing their consumption, some people have turned to illegal dumping, turning temporary dump sites into their own personal landfills.
Most have simply stopped caring. A few Torontonians see the strike as an opportunity to do good.
"It's gross," said Susan Carr, as she stood near a pile of garbage near Yonge and King Sts. Like most others, she looked at it, shook her head, covered her nose and just walked by. "Hopefully it will be picked up soon," she said.
For the first week of the strike, Alnoor Sayani, ignored the garbage as it accumulated near his restaurant, Lahore Tikka House on Gerrard St.
Midway into the strike's second week, he began to get worried.
"What if they strike goes on for eight months? Are we just going to live in a big dump?" Sayani said.
Yesterday afternoon, Sayani took 30 of his staff off the job, handed them brooms, bright yellow gloves and plastic bags, and worked alongside them to clean up the Gerrard India Bazaar, from Greenwood Ave. to Coxwell Ave. "We are doing this for the sake of our community, where we live, where we eat and where we make money. It is our turn to give back, " Sayani said to his staff before they began.
As the group walked up and down the street, store owners, nearby residents and tourists stopped to watch. "I can't believe they are actually doing this," said Nabila Ahmed, who lives in the area. "It's nice to see. At least the streets will stay clean for a few days."
While some observers congratulated them, others didn't seem to understand. "Why are you doing this? It's not our job," said a man named Mo, who would only give his first name.
At the end of the hour-long clean-up, the group had filled more than 70 garbage bags. "I know it won't stay this clean for long," said Sayani. "Probably just until the weekend.
"Doesn't matter. When it gets dirty, we will clean it again."
Source
Strike reveals our apathy - and our urge to do good
Jul 08, 2009 04:30 AM
Noor Javed
STAFF REPORTER
Sam Mirzai stops next to an overflowing trash can at Mel Lastman Square and takes the last sip from his coffee cup. With one quick motion, he stuffs the cup into one of the already-jammed slots of the can, adding to the mess that has piled up since the city's garbage strike began 16 days ago.
"Where else can I put it?" asks Mirzai, as he quickly walks by. He knows there is a strike on and no one will be around to clean the bin. But that hasn't done much to change his behaviour.
A snapshot of our increasingly grimy city is proof enough that Mirzai isn't alone. Across the city, garbage bins are piled high with trash and streets are sprinkled with litter. Instead of reducing their consumption, some people have turned to illegal dumping, turning temporary dump sites into their own personal landfills.
Most have simply stopped caring. A few Torontonians see the strike as an opportunity to do good.
"It's gross," said Susan Carr, as she stood near a pile of garbage near Yonge and King Sts. Like most others, she looked at it, shook her head, covered her nose and just walked by. "Hopefully it will be picked up soon," she said.
For the first week of the strike, Alnoor Sayani, ignored the garbage as it accumulated near his restaurant, Lahore Tikka House on Gerrard St.
Midway into the strike's second week, he began to get worried.
"What if they strike goes on for eight months? Are we just going to live in a big dump?" Sayani said.
Yesterday afternoon, Sayani took 30 of his staff off the job, handed them brooms, bright yellow gloves and plastic bags, and worked alongside them to clean up the Gerrard India Bazaar, from Greenwood Ave. to Coxwell Ave. "We are doing this for the sake of our community, where we live, where we eat and where we make money. It is our turn to give back, " Sayani said to his staff before they began.
As the group walked up and down the street, store owners, nearby residents and tourists stopped to watch. "I can't believe they are actually doing this," said Nabila Ahmed, who lives in the area. "It's nice to see. At least the streets will stay clean for a few days."
While some observers congratulated them, others didn't seem to understand. "Why are you doing this? It's not our job," said a man named Mo, who would only give his first name.
At the end of the hour-long clean-up, the group had filled more than 70 garbage bags. "I know it won't stay this clean for long," said Sayani. "Probably just until the weekend.
"Doesn't matter. When it gets dirty, we will clean it again."
Source
dt_toronto_geek
Superstar
Today both Norman Jewison & James Canning Parks are spotless, even the garbage receptacles are empty. The northern most park (George Hislop park) is a disaster, there's even furniture thrown into the beautiful gardens there. Perhaps the group or individual tending to these areas will move up to that park in the next few days.
lordmandeep
Banned
it depends area to area.
So it must depend on the type of people who live there.
If the area is trashy its a trashy area.
So it must depend on the type of people who live there.
If the area is trashy its a trashy area.
dt_toronto_geek
Superstar
Increased Flexibility Offered by City Councillors to Union
Union vows to stand its ground
Jul 09, 2009
Vanessa Lu
John Spears
City Hall Bureau
The union representing the city's 6,200 striking outside workers has made it clear that a proposed pay freeze this year and 1 per cent hike next year won't fly, according to an email message to city councillors obtained by the Star.
"Local 416 is not prepared to accept a compensation scheme with zero in the first year and 1 per cent in the second," president Mark Ferguson said in the email, which was sent just hours before a closed-door session of the employee and labour relations committee yesterday.
After a 2 1/2-hour meeting, attended by nearly half of all city councillors, Mayor David Miller emerged to tell reporters that the committee voted to grant increased flexibility to the city's negotiators, though he refused to elaborate on what that meant.
He did, however, continue to talk tough, suggesting the union needed to change its attitude to end the 18-day walkout.
"The goals remain the same as when the strike started," Miller said. "The union as you know from their public statements is looking to settlements of the past. It's not the past. The world changed with the financial crisis, and it hit the city like everybody else."
Local 79, which represents 24,000 mostly inside workers such as daycare teachers, public health nurses and parks and recreation staff, walked off the job at the same time as Local 416 on June 22.
The unions have been coordinating their action, though they are bargaining separately with the city at different hotels.
The unions have pointed to the need for fairness, noting other unionized city employees have received annual pay hikes of 3 per cent, including the TTC, police and fire departments. The other stumbling block is a sick-time bank provision, where employees can save unused sick days and cash them out before retirement.
The proposed zero and 1 per cent deal is the same one given to the city's 3,900 non-union staff, who are currently filling in for unionized workers at garbage depots, sewage and water treatment plants, and in traffic court.
Politicians, though, refused to roll back a 2.42 per cent cost of living increase for themselves this year.
In his email, Ferguson said the union will stand its ground.
"We are prepared for a long strike if that's what we have to do to get fair and equal treatment," he said, adding councillors should ask "hard questions about why your negotiators are wasting time and what the plan is to end this strike."
Councillor Doug Holyday said he hoped the committee vote to grant increased flexibility would spur some movement.
"If we sit there on both sides of the table, and nobody has any flexibility, and nobody moves from their position, it's like two brick walls looking at each other," he said.
Not all councillors are convinced it will do the trick.
"Given the voluminous list of outstanding issues, this could be a long strike," said Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong. "The union needs a reality check. They have to think long and hard about what they're asking for in tough economic times – and who they're asking to pay for it."
Source
Union vows to stand its ground
Jul 09, 2009
Vanessa Lu
John Spears
City Hall Bureau
The union representing the city's 6,200 striking outside workers has made it clear that a proposed pay freeze this year and 1 per cent hike next year won't fly, according to an email message to city councillors obtained by the Star.
"Local 416 is not prepared to accept a compensation scheme with zero in the first year and 1 per cent in the second," president Mark Ferguson said in the email, which was sent just hours before a closed-door session of the employee and labour relations committee yesterday.
After a 2 1/2-hour meeting, attended by nearly half of all city councillors, Mayor David Miller emerged to tell reporters that the committee voted to grant increased flexibility to the city's negotiators, though he refused to elaborate on what that meant.
He did, however, continue to talk tough, suggesting the union needed to change its attitude to end the 18-day walkout.
"The goals remain the same as when the strike started," Miller said. "The union as you know from their public statements is looking to settlements of the past. It's not the past. The world changed with the financial crisis, and it hit the city like everybody else."
Local 79, which represents 24,000 mostly inside workers such as daycare teachers, public health nurses and parks and recreation staff, walked off the job at the same time as Local 416 on June 22.
The unions have been coordinating their action, though they are bargaining separately with the city at different hotels.
The unions have pointed to the need for fairness, noting other unionized city employees have received annual pay hikes of 3 per cent, including the TTC, police and fire departments. The other stumbling block is a sick-time bank provision, where employees can save unused sick days and cash them out before retirement.
The proposed zero and 1 per cent deal is the same one given to the city's 3,900 non-union staff, who are currently filling in for unionized workers at garbage depots, sewage and water treatment plants, and in traffic court.
Politicians, though, refused to roll back a 2.42 per cent cost of living increase for themselves this year.
In his email, Ferguson said the union will stand its ground.
"We are prepared for a long strike if that's what we have to do to get fair and equal treatment," he said, adding councillors should ask "hard questions about why your negotiators are wasting time and what the plan is to end this strike."
Councillor Doug Holyday said he hoped the committee vote to grant increased flexibility would spur some movement.
"If we sit there on both sides of the table, and nobody has any flexibility, and nobody moves from their position, it's like two brick walls looking at each other," he said.
Not all councillors are convinced it will do the trick.
"Given the voluminous list of outstanding issues, this could be a long strike," said Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong. "The union needs a reality check. They have to think long and hard about what they're asking for in tough economic times – and who they're asking to pay for it."
Source
Therion
Senior Member
In the end the unions will turn everyone against them. Except Laz.
Dilla
Senior Member
While there is an argument to be made that a zero increase for a year and then one percent this is unfair to these unions, when the others got 3%, if we are doing to decrease wage increases, it has got to start somewhere. Otherwise, when the next collective agreement comes up, as the city negotiates with that union, they're going to use the same excuse that "well, they got it so it's not fair! (done best in the voice of a small child)." Someone has to be first.
slowtyper
New Member
Anyone been to the Vic Park and Eglinton transfer station recently? I haven't brought any of my trash anywhere yet but its getting to that time now. Since that station is 24hrs I figure it would be easy to go in the evening but I heard at the beginning the picketers were making you walk your garbage in.
Are there any dump sites (hopefully in east end) where you can just drive right up and throw it from your trunk without walking and carrying it?
Thanks!
Are there any dump sites (hopefully in east end) where you can just drive right up and throw it from your trunk without walking and carrying it?
Thanks!