From policy staffer to front-line homeless shelter worker. From desk jockey to janitor.
If the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 79 goes on strike on Monday, these are some of the temporary job transitions that the city has planned for its non-unionized staff in order to back-fill for picketing workers.
CUPE79’s 27,000 workers make up 65 per cent of the City of Toronto's workforce. They staff roles in homeless shelters, day cares, recreation centres and elsewhere.
Should a lockout or strike occur, the city has said that its March break camps and daycares will be closed. However, to minimize public service disruptions, the municipality has also prepared many non-unionized workers to take up the roles of their striking colleagues, including in homeless shelters, courts and with municipal service line 311.
Three non-unionized staff told TorontoToday they want to help as they’re able, but that the proposed job transitions would put them in a tough spot.
“To be super blunt,” said one worker. “I feel very negatively about crossing a picket line … I feel like I’m being put in the position of basically being a scab.”
A “scab” is the colloquial term for a replacement worker who crosses a picket line during a strike to fill the role of someone engaging in the labour action, which can reduce workers’ power to bargain by minimizing the disruption of a strike.
TorontoToday spoke with three city staff about their proposed redeployments. They requested anonymity as they feared they would face repercussions at work for speaking to the media.
How will the temporary job transitions work?
For months, the city has been preparing its contingency plan in the event of a strike.
In Oct 2024, weeks after CUPE79 served notice to bargain a new collective agreement with the City of Toronto, non-unionized workers received an emailed survey from the city asking their job preferences in the event of a labour disruption.
The email, which was obtained by TorontoToday, asked workers for their preferred shift times and locations and if they had any accessibility needs requiring accommodations.
The city told workers that they would receive their proposed reassignments the following month.
A downtown policy worker who spoke with TorontoToday said he was informed he will be reassigned to a janitorial and maintenance role in the event of a strike or lockout.
The new job will have earlier hours than his existing role, which will impact his ability to do daycare drop-off for his kids. Ultimately, however, the change will be manageable, he said.
“Sometimes your job asks you to clean desks and clean floors,” he said. “At the end of the day, it’s all public service.”
But others have been more concerned.
In November, a City of Toronto policy worker learned she will be redeployed to a front-line role in a homeless shelter in the event of a strike or lockout.
The worker said she’s done client-facing work before, but never with the homeless community.
“My assignment is something that I don’t feel very comfortable doing, to be honest,” she said.
In December and January, she was one of several workers TorontoToday spoke to who said they received training in preparation for their proposed reassignments.
The worker said her dozen-hour online training included topics such as how to deescalate a client in crisis and how to administer NARCAN in the event of an opioid overdose. She said that during the training sessions many of her peers had their cameras off, and that she believed there was little accountability with respect to how much of the information was being absorbed.
Asked about training for redeployed workers, a city spokesperson said “non-union city staff have appropriate resources available to them and are encouraged to utilize these resources.”
The spokesperson did not say how many workers will be redeployed should a strike or lockout occur.
“The city has contingency plans in place which will be communicated at the appropriate time,” the spokesperson said.
Mike Major, executive director of the professional association for the city’s non-unionized workers said, however, that he expects it to be “a big chunk” of the city’s some 7,000 non-unionized staff.
While he has not been provided with the exact number of staff who will be reassigned, Major said he expects the number to be significant given the city’s past use of reallocated workers during strikes. He said he’s received “hundreds” of questions about the reallocations from members in recent weeks.
Major also said all workers have the right to have received adequate training for their redeployment positions. He said anyone who feels like they have not received adequate training should contact his organization and their manager.
Inequity in pay ‘distasteful’: Worker
Workers who spoke with TorontoToday said while they understand the importance of keeping essential services running in the event of a strike, they feel somewhat uncomfortable about being asked to cross picket lines and compromise their solidarity with unionized workers.
If the strike occurs, a City of Toronto business analyst told TorontoToday she will be redeployed as a customer service representative.
Temporary workers earn their existing wages while in redeployment roles, so she would make far more than what the striking worker would have earned for the same labour, which she said she found somewhat “distasteful.”
The worker said this dynamic feels especially tricky given that non-unionized staff like her have benefitted from unionized workers’ previous labour negotiations and actions.
“It definitely feels uncomfortable,” she said. “I’m very aware that the things unions have fought for, for a long time, are things that I benefit from as a non-union worker.”
York University associate professor Steven Tufts said redeploying workers is often not worth it for employers in the long run, as the practice can harm relationships between union and non-union staff.
Tufts said, however, that redeployment is not uncommon. In past municipal strike situations, the City of Toronto has previously reallocated workers.
The professor said the practice creates friction: “Eventually, everybody has to return to work.”
Some workers to remain in existing positions
Should the city’s indoor workers strike, not all non-unionized workers will be redeployed.
A supervisor in the transportation services division said he and some peers working on time-sensitive projects such as the Gardiner Expressway rehabilitation will not be re-allocated.
However he said that in the event of a strike or lockout other staff within transportation services will be redeployed internally to backfill key functions, like ensuring traffic signals continue to work.
TorontoToday requested information from the city about which divisions are gaining and losing the most staff in the proposed reallocation of labour, but did not receive a response.
The city has said that in the event of a strike, all 39 city-operated early learning and child care centres and most recreation centres will be closed. But it has said emergency services such as police, fire and paramedic services, will continue to function, as will the TTC, garbage and recycling collection and winter road and sidewalk maintenance.
Workers told TorontoToday redeployments will include positions within the city’s shelters, courts, and 311 customer service centre. A worker said redeployed staff would also be responsible for handling Ontario Works’ applications made over the phone.
Worker trying to ‘keep the lights on’
Representatives for both the City of Toronto and CUPE Local 79 have said they are working hard to try to strike a deal, preventing the need for a strike or lockout.
City manager Paul Johnson stressed on Wednesday that he wants to strike a deal by Friday night to give parents enough time to make alternative March break arrangements.
“I think Sunday at midnight becomes really problematic. That means you gotta stay up very late at night to understand if your child care centre will be in operation on Monday, let alone the March break camp,” he said.
CUPE79 president Nas Yadollahi said she’s open to bargaining over the weekend but set first thing Monday morning as a hard deadline.
Yadollahi and her negotiating team spent Wednesday poring over the city’s latest offer, which was received on Tuesday night.
The Tuesday offer includes some wage concessions in line with CUPE79’s demands. However, on Wednesday Yadollahi said it “still falls short.”
If the negotiations end in a strike, one non-union worker said he’ll do his part in making the best of a tough situation.
“The scope really is, do the bare minimum to just keep the lights on,” he said.
“It’s a s— situation, and we’re all trying to make the best of it.”
