Toronto backtracks on return-to-office plans for city employees as Omicron spreads more confusion about employee pay
The biggest headline of the 2018 municipal election on the city side was the promise of a province-wide municipal union.
That promise is coming into focus as the election progresses in Toronto.
Omicron is the fourth union in the city. The city wants to scrap it, but that promise, made by incumbent councillor Doug Ford, is back on the table.
Ford said he was withdrawing his request for an Omicron-type union.
“We’ve been at a stalemate,” Ford said on Friday. “There’s been a lot of conversation and a lot of letters and a lot of tweets from people questioning why I was asking for these things.”
Those who signed the union’s letter opposing Omicron in Ward 4, such as Mayor John Tory and Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam, have been asked to get together to discuss the union.
The mayor has said he’s still interested in seeing an Omicron-type union, adding in an interview after Friday’s election that council needs to make decisions on the proposal before the new council takes control on Monday.
In Ward 2, where the city is in the midst of negotiating a new contract with the York Region District School Board, the union has also come into question.
“It’s kind of going backwards because of their refusal to reach a new contract and in many ways there was no need for an Omicron in Ward 2,” said Tory.
“We have an agreement in place, we don’t have to have an Omicron in Ward 2,” he said.
Council is expected to be in the chamber at 4 p.m. on Monday when it discusses its vote on the Omicron proposal.
When the Ford government was in power, council voted to pass the Omicron proposal with only Ford voting against it.