Toronto: Council’s surprise budget rebellion reins in the mayor’s war against labour

[marmar]

from NOW Toronto:




Rob Ford’s trojan horse
Council’s surprise budget rebellion reins in the mayor’s war against labour

By Enzo Di Matteo


A giant trojan horse was wheeled to the gates of City Hall Monday, January 23 – the front doors, actually.

But gates seem a more appropriate image for a Ford administration suddenly under siege after the previous week’s surprise budget smackdown. The über-prop for a press conference warning of the hidden dangers posed to the city by an impending Canada-Europe free trade deal (think privatization) made for some delicious irony given last week’s betrayal of former Ford allies.

No word if Mark Ferguson, president of CUPE Local 416, the city’s outside workers’ union, was hiding inside the wooden figure after spending the weekend across the street at the Sheraton Hotel in contract talks. He was spotted at Tuesday’s meeting of the mayor’s executive, at which making paramedics an essential service was the topic of discussion.

The clock has been ticking down to a lockout after a provincial conciliator declared a stalemate January 12. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.nowtoronto.com/news/story.cfm?content=184945