In quintessentially Canadian fashion, city staff prepare for looming lockout by learning to maintain hockey arenas

One sure sign things are going poorly at city hall: management types are learning to drive Zambonis. The Globe and Mail reports that sources say the city and two major unions are bracing for “a prolonged shutdown of municipal services.” So city planners and waste management folks are preparing for a lockout, and parks department managers are learning to “run Zambonis to avoid a prolonged closing of municipal arenas.” Mark Ferguson, the head of CUPE 416, is predicting the lockout in light of a 21-page proposal from the city, which he says will affect “employment security” by targeting the provisions that union busters like to call the “jobs for life” clause. Naturally, Deputy Mayor and Employee and Labour Relations Committee chair Doug Holyday says it’s inappropriate to be negotiating through the media and that Ferguson’s statements are empty threats. But is anybody really surprised? The city elected a brash union hater as mayor, after all. Read the entire story [Globe and Mail] »