The Big Sigh of Relief

It is calm and quiet at City Hall this morning. One can almost hear the collective sigh of relief echoing through the halls. All of the Councillors' teams went home on Friday wondering how they would cope with all of your issues if there was another summer Strike.

I hope you won't mind that the blog contained only technical information last week as negotiations progressed. Both sides of the table were working extremely hard all week and none of us wanted to grind things to a halt by saying something that might cause offence. When you are holed up in a hotel room with 10 of your bargaining unit and none of you have slept for days, the TV news playing in the corner of the room can really set people off. We all felt it was best to follow the Mayor's lead and keep political (Read: numbskull) comments of the airwaves as much as possible.

Members of CUPE Local 416 will vote to ratify the agreement later this week and Council will vote on it on July 19th. Council are hoping and praying that Staff will be able to share the same success with the Library Local bargaining unit by July 14th.