October 16, 2015
The City of Toronto will be entering collective bargaining this fall with CUPE Local 79 and TCEU CUPE Local 416, which represent the City's 28,500 inside and outside workers. The annual salary and benefit costs to the City for CUPE-represented employees totals approximately $1.7 billion.
"Given the size of the workforce and the dollars involved in these talks, it is important that we are open and transparent with taxpayers," said Deputy Mayor Minnan-Wong, Chair of the City's Employee and Labour Relations Committee, which approved the mandate for the City bargaining team at its meeting on Friday, October 9.
To support transparency, the City has launched a website,
http://www.cityoftorontobargaining.ca, and a Twitter account @TOBargaining aimed at providing all Torontonians with the most up-to-date information on the City's collective bargaining efforts and collective agreements.
"The City's employees all play a significant role in delivering important City services," said Deputy Mayor Minnan-Wong. "Our position is to negotiate contracts that are fair to both the City's taxpayers and its employees while allowing the City to have the flexibility it needs to improve the way it serves the public and responds to the fiscal challenge of increasing benefit costs."
The City's current agreements with CUPE expire at the end of December.
Toronto is Canada's largest city, the fourth largest in North America, and home to a diverse population of about 2.8 million people. It is a global centre for business, finance, arts and culture and is consistently ranked one of the world's most livable cities. For information on non-emergency City services and programs, Toronto residents, businesses and visitors can visit
http://www.toronto.ca, call 311, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, or follow us @TorontoComms.
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Media contacts:
Amanda Galbraith, Mayor's Office, 416-338-3206, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Jackie DeSouza, Strategic Communications, 416-397-5277, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.