Following months of bargaining with unwilling and bad-faith City negotiators, the 30,000 City of Toronto workers represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 79 (CUPE-79) have recently voted to ratify their new three-year collective agreement.
City officials signed the agreement on March 28. Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow stated, “Local 79 members have a critical role in keeping our City safe and healthy. This agreement recognizes their critical work while also providing value to Torontonians.”
Yet, according to the union, it was not easy to get municipal officials to negotiate in good faith with the workers. At the start of the process, the City manager and labour relations officer allegedly failed to show up for negotiation meetings and stalled negotiations by refusing to present the City's offers in writing to the union. In mid-February, Toronto negotiators published a misleading bargaining update.
The City's offer at the time translated to a real wage cut of 3% over the life of the agreement. All this contrasts sharply with the statements of Mayor Chow and her team about the importance of these essential workers. Likewise, the City's statements about “value to Torontonians” do not match up with the concerns that have been raised by the union about the impact on citizen services entailed by the offer.
“City workers have had enough,” said CUPE-79's president Nas Yadollahi. The union demanded a no-board report—a notice provided by the Ministry of Labour starting the 17-day countdown before a union can legally strike—after negotiations with the city fell through. “After years of being overworked, understaffed and underpaid, we refuse to accept a deal that keeps us falling further behind. We are prepared to stand up for what we deserve, and we won't back down,” said Yadollahi.
Following ratification, CUPE-79 congratulated itself on achieving what it considers a first in the city's history—that all Toronto City workers will be paid above minimum wage. The union, however, has not released any other details of the deal. Some information, though, has been released by the City:
“Key highlights of the agreement renewed from January 1, 2025 to December 31, 2028, include:
- In 2025, all members will receive wage increases ranging from $1.60 to $1.65 per hour or 3.95 per cent depending on the member’s specific wage grade.
- From 2026 to 2028, all members will receive annual wage increases of three to 3.9 per cent year over year.
- In addition, there are one-time market-based wage increases for workers such as nurse practitioners, paramedic call takers and emergency medical dispatchers, law clerks, prosecutors, family support workers and municipal standards officers.
- Increased guaranteed daily hours and shifts per pay period for staff working in long-term care homes.
- Increases to shift premiums and paramedical benefits.
- Ensuring all part-time recreation workers are paid above minimum wage and increase eligibility to City’s benefits and pension plan.
- Operational changes are expected to yield savings and efficiencies, such as introducing [...] reasonable and customary’ caps on eligible benefits.”