'We're open,' Cambridge city hall reminds public amid job action

City officials in Cambridge are telling the public that city hall its open for business as job action from its unionized outdoor workers continues. 

About 185 unionized outdoor workers, who normally care for the city's roads, parks, cemetaries, arenas, water and utilities walked off the job Wednesday after rejecting the latest offer from city negotiators. 

Since then, pickets have gone up near city-run parking lots on Beverly St. and Dickson St. near city hall as well as the Cambridge works yards on Bishop St., delaying city staff as they go to work or forcing them to find alternative places to park. 

"When you hear that, it's kind of nice to know that we're actually making a difference," said Chris Stephens, the chief steward for the Canadian Union of Public Employees local 32, which represents the outdoor workers. 

Money at heart of dispute

At issue in the dispute is money, Stephens said, that the unionized workers want to be paid at similar levels as outdoor workers in other Ontario cities. 

"It's to the point where some departments are two dollars, other departments are four dollars underpaid," he said. "Our city managers, they received a 15 per cent raise back in 2014. The question now is why not us?" 

Cambridge Mayor Doug Craig has acknowledged that the city's outdoor workers are paid less than their counterparts around the province, and something needs to be done. 

"We recognize that a number of these areas that they have complained about, about being below the average of other municipalities, is correct," he told CBC News Thursday. 

'We want to correct it'

"We want to correct it. We want to correct it within a time period of the next six months and we want that written into the contract and then we would apply retroactive pay back to January First on top of the two per cent."

The two per cent raise was rejected by the union on Wednesday as broke off talks with the city. 

Chris Stephens said the latest offer by the city doesn't meet the two to four dollar raise workers are asking for and that two per cent works out to "about 60 to 80 cents." 

Stephens adds that while both sides have communicated a desire to get back to the negotiation table, there are no meetings set for the weekend. 

"No date [to resume talks] has been confirmed at this point," he said.