Mayor Pays Unions For Their Support

I have been telling you for years that no plan B Mayor Miller would cancel the private garbage hauler contracts in order to pay off the city unions for their support during the last two elections. Jobs for life wasn't enough. And Brian if you wonder why Etobicoke is not on the table you have to remember it is the mayor's riding. As far as savings we will have wait and see but the mayor has built in safeguards so the taxpayer can't really determine what the cost of services might be. oH, BTW, LET'S NOT FORGET HOW MUCH OF A FIGHT THE CITY OF YORK COUNCILORS PUT UP. We are getting screwed without any protection.......

Private collection trashed
City of York won't be exempt from the stink when the next garbage strike hits
By ZEN RURYK, CITY HALL BUREAU CHIEF

Residents in the former City of York have lost their shield against a garbage strike.

In a move city waste officials say will save taxpayers $4 million annually, Toronto council voted 27-10 yesterday to let city workers -- and not the private sector -- collect garbage in the former municipality of York, effective Aug. 7.

Councillors also voted to score additional savings of $400,000 a year by letting civic workers collect discarded stoves, dishwashers and other so-called "white goods" in areas where the job is now done by the private sector, starting Sept. 1.

Residents in York and Etobicoke -- the only other part of Toronto where curbside trash collection is contracted out to the private sector -- continued to have their refuse picked up when municipal garbage workers last went on strike in 2002.

"During the strike that we had a couple of years ago, (constituents) called and thanked me very, very much that their garbage was being picked up," said Councillor Frances Nunziata, who was mayor of York prior to the creation of an amalgamated Toronto in 1998.

City waste officials say that now that the green bin has been rolled out across Toronto, it's possible to achieve savings by having municipal workers do the job in York.

Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker, chairman of the public works committee, said that some right-wing critics of the move to give city workers the collection job in York were "blinded by ideology instead of common sense."

Brian Cochrane, president of Canadian Union of Public Employees, expressed disappointment that city council did not choose to let his members take over the collection job in Etobicoke.