Tuesday July 28, 04:29 AM
Toronto garbage strike nears end
TORONTO (AFP) - Outdoor city workers struck a tentative deal with Canada's biggest city after a five-week strike that has raised a big stink with a halt to garbage collection.
"We are happy that we have a resolution," Ann Dembinski, president of a union representing 18,000 Toronto city employees, told public television station CBC.
A few hours earlier, Mark Ferguson, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 416, which represents 6,200 workers in Toronto, had announced that "the basis" of a deal had been reached.
The pact must now be ratified by the 24,000 city workers in a vote expected on Wednesday, as well as by the municipal council, which will hold an extraordinary session on Friday.
The deal is "very good news for Torontonians," said Mayor David Miller during a press conference.
He thanked the city's residents for their "patience and cooperation during very difficult circumstances."
The workers went on strike on June 22 to protest the city's intent to revise a collective contract that expired on December 31.
The dispute centered on a policy allowing workers to accumulate unused sick days and get paid for them when they retire, which the city has said was too expensive.
"It's a fair deal. Compromises were made but at the end of the day, we have a deal that we're proud of," Ferguson told reporters while declining to reveal the terms of the agreement. Dembinski also declined to specify the deal's terms.
During the tourist season, Toronto's garbage bins had started to overflow. With no trash pickup, the city set up temporary dumps in public parks and parking lots where residents could toss their garbage.
Pools were also closed across the city during the strike.
If the deal is ratified, trash collectors could get back to work Thursday, Ferguson said.
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