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06 | 09 | 2012 VOLUME 17 | ISSUE 26
LYDIA HERRLE SPARKS GREEN RIBBON CAMPAIGN LIVING HERE PAGE 28
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Snowbirds Take Flight! The fourth annual Waterloo Air Show took to the skies on June 2-3, featuring a performance by the Canadian Forces Snowbirds. Among those enjoying the action was Sophia Couto, 4, of Cambridge, who plays with an inflatable toy plane during the show. See page 2 for more photos. [COLIN DEWAR / THE OBSERVER]
Wage freeze an uphill battle at Woolwich Township Without provincial legislation, municipalities are stuck with a system that works against austerity, says CAO STEVE KANNON
A recent 4.75-per-cent, three-year wage increase for unionized workers at Wellesley Township is likely to be a factor in Woolwich negotiations later this year, making a wage freeze less likely. The provincial government simply hasn’t given municipalities the tools to deal with ever-growing payroll costs, says
the township’s chief administrative officer. “If the McGuinty government wanted to implement across-all-of-the-public-sector wage freezes, the question is why did they not look at legislating wage freezes?” asked David Brenneman, noting voluntary measures are not likely to succeed. In the absence of such legislation, municipalities are stuck with the regular collective bargaining process, including mediation and arbitration, he added.
Those processes have not been favourable to cash-strapped municipalities, typically awarding settlements well above the province’s professed zero per cent. Case in point, this week’s decision to give Toronto Transit Commission workers two per cent raises in each of the next three years. In a system that uses other municipalities as the benchmark, rather than privatesector wages that are stagnant or falling, settlements elsewhere are bound to have
an impact on what happens in Woolwich, said Brenneman. The township won’t begin negotiations with its outside workers, members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, until the fall. In April, Wellesley agreed to a three-year deal, retroactive to Jan. 1, that provides for a 1.5 per cent wage increase this year, 1.5 in 2013 and 1.75 in 2014 for its 12 unionized WAGES | 4
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