Gray Row

For those in the ROW (Rest of World) this city's problems contain little consequence in the great scheme of existence. Yet in this latest kerfuffle, there lies a lesson for all.

City employees engaged the strike method to win demands in the pending contract. The strike began midnight last night. It includes park, recreation, street maintenance, and garbage workers.

I was wrong about something. I really did think the mayor, David Miller, had a handle on this and would rescue the citizenry from rancid inconvenience. He's done this before. But I think Miller underestimated the amount of time for the rescue. Unlike the Toronto Transit Commission threatened strike about a year ago, Miller didn't have to do all that much to personally intervene and prevent strike action.

In the case of the city workers, they have a legitimate cause and horrendously incompetent managers. Those managers include the Toronto Councilors for they are management. Yet some of the councilors decided this very morning to strike in sympathy. Yes Virginia(s) everywhere this sounds great.

Such a public declaration by sympathetic councilors does sound good. Too good. And it would get the rousing approval of this author were not this knowledge tempered with the facts. About two weeks ago the Toronto City Council decided to take the summer off until mid September.

How do we all know this? Well two weeks ago it was announced that Real Madrid, the famous Spanish soccer club was to play Toronto TFC in a friendly exhibition game in the middle of this summer. In order to get the Spanish footballers to play, the Toronto club will have to cover their false grass with real sod because the fearless Spaniards will only play on real grass.

At the same time, the Toronto TFC stated that it would permanently replace the artificial turf at the publicly funded new BMO Stadium with grass. Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE) also owns the NBA Toronto Raptors (basketball), and the NHL Maple Leafs (hockey) franchises. They are incredibly wealthy but decided to let taxpayers share in building a stadium on taxpayer lands (Canadian National Exhibition Grounds). The stadium they built can only be used for soccer, not CFL football. Further to get the funding and land MLSE agreed that it would be a shared use stadium with other community organizations. It is such heavy use that only the artificial turf can stand the usage.

What is the point of this part of the story? Well Toronto TFC decided to approach the Toronto City Council at the first opportunity to convert BMO Stadium artificial turf to natural turf. According to MLSE/TFC the very next council meeting is in mid September or about another 12 weeks. Remember the councilors that volunteered to strike or not show up for work in sympathy?

See how so many things tangle into a mess? See how many disparate things relate in this particular city? This isn't a third world city where corruption appears up front and direct to topic, the corruption here lies intertwined in gray steel wool.

Miller continues to talk tough and is very much trying to take the middle position between the city management and the workers. Now he and the Toronto City Councilors, some who are out on strike in sympathy until mid September, voted themselves a huge ten percent wage increase about ten months ago. Outrage swept the council, as their constituents painted the atmosphere blue with very critical and obscene verbosities. How dare the citizen oppose the just reward for their efforts?

Journalists and almost every group associated with Toronto City Council activities advised them not to take such a severe pay raise in view of the impending civil worker contracts. The same City Council that is taking 14 or so weeks off, approved the negotiating stance of their city management to hold on the wages of the workers and to remove accumulated sick days making 18 sick days as the maximum each employee can hold. In short, the Toronto City Council is asking the part of the city government who actually do the work, to take pay and benefit cuts that they the councilors were unable to accept themselves.

Not only that in the most critical negotiating period the Council did not sit in committee even though the crisis existed. The convener of this emergency meetings is Mayor Miller. To date, no emergency meeting. The provincial government politicians are also on summer vacation or days off. The province is the only political body with the power to legislate a return to work legislation which means that it is up to the provincial MLA's who must come back to work to repair the labor mess that the vacationing city councilors made. The mess being that the city is trying to reduce the potential time off monies of its working employees while the ruling politicals are taking so much time off.

Like I said everything is intertwined. The Toronto City Council forced its citizens to accept a garbage bin regime of waste collection. Each residential owner dependent on city collection of waste, has to pay about $60 dollars per bin, per year. Since one bin must be garbage and another must be recyclables every owner must put out the coin for leasing two bins which were made in the USA despite the presence of so many plastics firms in the immediate area.

To date, the Toronto City Council forced its own workers into a strike position by trying to reclaim benefit monies agreed to in previous negotiations. The most impactful part of the striking workforce is those who collect the garbage. No mention is being made to the city residents to adjust for the lack of service. In other words, no reciprocal discount on garbage fees during the time of lost garbage collection services. The city cannot approve this fee adjustment until an official mention is made at the next city council meeting if any councilor bothers to bring the motion to the floor of the general committee meeting.

You know the good side to all this? In about two weeks we won't have to go to Denmark to find any stench. It is here.