Over 90 per cent of workers for the City of Toronto voted in favour of a strike mandate, the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 79 (CUPE79) announced on Tuesday.
The vote potentially sets the stage for some 30,000 workers to walk off the job if negotiations with the city remain stalled. CUPE79’s members work in areas like public health, employment and social services, ambulance dispatch, water and food inspection and long-term care, among others.
Better wages and more benefits for these workers are the union’s key demands, CUPE79 president Nas Yadollahi told reporters at a press conference Tuesday morning.
Many City of Toronto workers are paid minimum wage, Yadollahi said.
Meanwhile, a “majority” of employees make less than $26 per hour, Yadollahi added, which is considered the minimum hourly wage a person must earn in order to cover basic necessities in Toronto, according to the Ontario Living Wage Network.
The low wages means City of Toronto workers are struggling to afford the very city they serve, the union president said.
Mekhi McKenzie-Jones, a CUPE79 member working for the city’s recreation department, said he recently had to move to Pickering because he can’t afford to live in Toronto. His commute to work takes two hours by car, he said, meaning there’s little time for him to see his two sons.
“Inflation has crushed us,” McKenzie-Jones said, noting many of his colleagues are under similar financial strain. “I think a lot of us are one missed paycheck away from extreme stress.”
Under his current contract, McKenzie-Jones said he’s making minimum wage and doesn’t have access to benefits like sick leave or vacation time.
“My best friend passed away,” he said. “I couldn't go to his funeral. My supervisor said you're not allowed to. You don't get bereavement [leave].”
A strike mandate doesn’t directly mean the union will go on strike but it does signal workers’ intentions to resort to job action if key demands aren’t met.
The “overwhelming” vote in favour of a strike mandate sends a message that city workers “want negotiations to proceed, [but] they're not going to settle for just anything,” Yadollahi said.
CUPE79 has been at the bargaining table with the city since the end of November. After a month and a half of negotiations, Yadollahi said the two parties are still “very far apart.”
The union noted that high vacancy rates and low employee retention plague a number of city services, particularly in long-term care. There are over 500 vacant positions across the city’s long-term care homes, meaning that, in some cases, there’s a ratio of one nurse for every 60 residents, Yadollahi said.
City spokesperson Laura McQuillan wrote in an email to TorontoToday that the city “continues to bargain in good faith with CUPE Local 79 to reach a fair and reasonable collective agreement.”
The city and CUPE79 will continue bargaining on Jan. 23.
“The City’s bargaining team has been and continues to be onsite at the bargaining centre and available seven days a week to work toward a resolution with Local 79's bargaining team,” McQuillan wrote. “We have encouraged them to return to the table sooner and make more dates available for constructive bargaining.”
The union’s strike mandate comes shortly after the City of Toronto released its 2025 budget proposal, which includes $300 million earmarked for increased costs that may arise from new union agreements.
The city narrowly avoided a transit strike in June by inking a new collective agreement with the union representing TTC workers for year-over-year wage increases and improved health benefits. The new contract will cost the city $176 million over three years.
The city also recently reached a new agreement with CUPE Local 416, which represents the city’s outside workers, including garbage collectors and parks staff. Local 416 members will see wage increases of between 3 and 3.95 per cent year-over-year. The city has not revealed how much the agreement will cost the municipality.
