In a strange twist in Toronto's 37-day-old municipal workers strike, the head of the inside workers union is complaining about the timeline for getting her members back to work.
CUPE Local 79 President Ann Dembinski says her union will hold a vote to ratify the city's contract proposal on Wednesday and would like to return to work on Thursday.
She says she's frustrated the city is waiting for the vote's results before holding its own ratification meeting on Friday.
"We are being told from the city that we can't return to work until city has also ratified collective agreements," she said Tuesday night outside the Sheraton Centre on Queen Street.
"City council does not need to know the results of the ratification vote before a meeting can be called. There is no reason we shouldn't go back to work on Thursday... The bulk of our services can start up immediately."
The Mayor has previously said council will meet Friday because an emergency meeting requires 24 hours notice and can't be called until the ratification vote is complete.
Local 79 will vote between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. that day.
Dembinski says the rush to get back to work is not related to the overtime potential of Monday's holiday as most of her union members are not scheduled to work that day.
According to a city manager who spoke with CP24 anonymously, it would be impossible to send workers back to work Thursday for reasons including the following:
- their security access cards have been suspended
- their computer accounts and Blackberries have been suspended
