Rob Ford and his allies continue to control the PR game over contract negotiations with city unions
The Rob Ford administration has already fired the first volleys of the New Year in the ongoing public relations battle with CUPE over current labour negotiations. In a column in the Toronto Sun, Doug Holyday criticized the city’s unions and their “terms and conditions of employment” before following suit with an appearance on the CBC’s Metro Morning yesterday, alongside CUPE Local 416 president Mark Ferguson, where he laid the onus for a work stoppage clearly at the feet of organized labour.
An excerpt from this morning’s broadcast:
Host Matt Galloway: Some people say this is building the case for a lockout. Is it?
Holyday: It’s not. It’s just letting the residents know what our difficulties are. We’re not negotiating these points with these people through the paper. But the residents are entitled to know what they’re paying for and why we’re taking the position we’re taking on some of these matters with the union. And if the taxpayers still want to keep paying for all this, by all means let me know. But the people that I’ve spoken to and explained some of these matters to say, ‘What the heck’s going on?’
…
Galloway: Do you expect your employees to be locked out?
Ferguson: I do expect that this city is aiming for a work disruption, that in fact there has been contingency planning in place over the last three months, where we know that they are planning for a labour disruption. We want to get back to the table and negotiate a common sense resolution to the difference between the parties.
Galloway: Will your workers go on strike?
Ferguson: We’re not aiming for a strike at this point. This is completely in the hands of the city. If there is a labour disruption, it will be at the feet of this administration.
Galloway: Doug Holyday, do you anticipate a lockout?
Holyday: No I don’t. And the only one talking about a lockout so far has been Mark Ferguson.
We’ve already noted that the mayor and his allies have upper hand in the public relations battle. With the 2009 municipal workers’ strike still fresh in the city’s collective conscience, the playing field is severely slanted against Ferguson and the unions, and the city appears to have no problem making that point again and again. Earlier in that same interview, Holyday argued that both parties could have already reached an agreement, but “the union always likes to play this out until the good weather, until the tourists come to town, until it’s hard to deal with the garbage.” Surely, this kind of rhetoric is a sign of things to come.
The Fords have done a great job on this file. Back in November they were loudly complaining that the unions were “negotiating in public” by going to the media. Now the City is going directly to the media and criticizing the unions for not letting the public “know what’s going on.”
This is PR 101, and Canada’s NDP/Liberal-voting communists are about 50 years behind the times, no wonder nobody votes for them anymore!
So they’re doing a great job by being typical right wing blowhard hypocrites?
No wonder the right’s days are already numbered.
My wife works in the private sector and the big issue is figuring out the bonus percentage. The company has to gauge how much is enough to stop the annual flow of employees to other companies. It’s a hard concept for a lot of people, but if you want the best, or even fairly good, employees you’ve got to pay them. I joined the city, at a pretty big dip in salary, for the benifits and pension. I’m looking at getting out since the benifits and pension are being erroded every contract. I’m not alone, a lot will also seek work elsewhere, which is our right and good for us. The city will no longer be able to attract good people in the first place so the workers the city hires will be less able and experienced. A lot of you are saying the city only employs the dregs now (that’s not true) but imagine the quality of worker if the city really does go minimum wage.
The City Of Toronto used to pride itself in giving decent jobs to people with fair wages and benefits but this has never been a consideration for the conservatives who want to gut everything and make workers appear as worthless over paid loafers.
Meanwhile with only two terms in office ( 8 ) years these politicians receive a full pension.
People are dumb and can’t see what this guy is up to.
Gee what a surprise city council is raising taxes and cutting services and taking away jobs – who would have guessed this would happen. lol