City hall and its unions remain entrenched in a stalemate—which is probably bad news for CUPE

The city and CUPE met yesterday with a provincial conciliator, but the two sides remain stuck in basically the same position they’ve occupied for weeks. The union has agreed to roughly 30 of the city’s 70 proposals, but CUPE Local 416 president Mark Ferguson says his organization won’t concede on the most substantial ones. (He also says the city is headed for a lockout, by now a well-worn threat.) Unfortunately for Ferguson, with the bulk of public opinion falling on the anti-union side, nothing short of major concessions will make organized labour appear to be the reasonable party here—so, politically, sticking with the status quo is basically equivalent to losing ground. Read the entire story [Toronto Sun] »