The union representing Toronto's outdoor workers appealed directly to councillors on Tuesday in an attempt to push forward with a contract offer that has already been rejected by the city's labour relations committee.
Mark Ferguson, president of CUPE Local 416, wrote a letter to city councillors on Tuesday asking them to consider an offer that would freeze wages for the union's 6,000 members for the next three years in exchange for no changes to the conditions of its current collective agreement.
The deal would save the city $8.5 million a year, which Ferguson said could be used to pay for some city services threatened by the proposed budget.
City council is currently debating a 2012 budget proposal that features about $250 million in savings due in part to cuts, such as reductions in library funding and public pool hours.
"I ask you to consider, in your budget deliberations, how you will be able to use this money that is now available," Ferguson wrote on Tuesday.
"This is an opportunity not just to maintain budget lines, but to protect vital supports and neighbourhood hubs – places central to family and community life, and the means to put them to full use: pools, arenas, libraries, community grant programs."
Ferguson said he was appealing to councillors as the representative of the people "who deliver those services, but also on behalf of the hundreds of thousands who depend on them."
Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday, chair of the employee and labour relations committee, has already rejected the wage freeze offer and countered this week with a deal that would remove the union's current employment security provisions for workers with less than 25 years of seniority.
