Outsourcing at city hall a `shocker'

Union slams move to save $302K by contracting out cleaning jobs

The emotionally charged debate over outsourcing City of Windsor jobs returns to council Monday, with a report outlining how $302,349 annually can be saved by contracting out cleaning at the city hall campus.

Although Mayor Drew Dilkens pledges that no one will actually lose their job as a result — displaced caretakers will slot into vacancies at other locations — their union says its affected members are shocked, especially with the timing.

“Why are they looking at contracting our cleaning services in the middle of a pandemic? It's just a complete shocker for us,” CUPE Local 543 president Dave Petten said Wednesday. He said the city has done nothing but praise its caretaker staff as they've stepped up to keep people safe in recent months as COVID-19 descended.

“These folks are doing a phenomenal job in a very difficult time and I'm just asking council, why would we take on that risk?”

The city hall campus has two main buildings — the new city hall and 400 City Hall Square — where seven full-time and seven part-time caretakers clean 275,000 square feet of space. Pay ranges between $21.76 and $25.61 an hour. After issuing a request for proposals from private companies, the city has determined the recommended bid, from GDI Services for $543,540 annually for three years, would cost $302,349 less than the current $845,890 annual cost of paying city workers to do it. A big difference appears to be $161,790 in fringe benefits for city workers.

It's unknown what a private company like GDI pays, but based on preliminary research Petten suggests it ranges from minimum wage to around $17, with little in the way of benefits.

While the city hall caretakers may not lose their jobs he believes the city should preserve decent-paying jobs in the city and said the union has concerns about the city's next outsourcing move. It started eliminating caretaking staff at Huron Lodge in 2017 and a future phase could see the city outsource the rest of its caretakers.

The Huron Lodge debate four years ago was an emotional one, with union leaders and the family of elderly residents pleading that the caretakers be saved. Outsourcing was approved in a 6-5 vote. Today, council has five new members and it appears the pending vote could be just as close.

“It's been controversial every time we talk about it,” the mayor said, recounting previous decisions to outsource garbage collection, parking enforcement, daycare work and now caretaking. “I get that it evokes a lot of emotion,” but in every instance contracting out has proven to be a success for taxpayers, he said. At Huron Lodge, $605,000 has been saved each of the last three years and $1.9 million set aside to pay the displaced caretakers was never needed because they moved into jobs that became vacant elsewhere in the corporation.

Now, eight months into the pandemic, council has approved extending the contract for Aramark Canada at Huron Lodge an extra year — an indication of the high level of service, he said.

Looking at the city hall caretakers, contracting out will provide almost $1 million in savings over three years at a time when the city is under extreme budgetary pressures due to COVID.

“There are no sacred cows, we have to consider all these things to be fair to taxpayers,” Dilkens said.

The city has 64 caretakers remaining, roughly split between full- timers and part- timers. There are five vacant caretaking positions available to filled elsewhere in the corporation and another caretaker retiring Nov. 30, meaning the seven full-timers at city hall are almost entirely taken care of before the outsourcing happens.

People voting for outsourcing in 2017 were the mayor, Fred Francis, Ed Sleiman, Jo-anne Gignac, and two councillors who have departed. Hilary Payne was replaced by Kieran Mckenzie, who on Wednesday said convincing him of the merits of outsourcing will be a “very steep hill to climb.” A lesson learned from COVID is there are likely to be unforeseen situations that are a lot easier to solve with your own staff than with a private company that's following its contract, Mckenzie said.

“I look at this report, I'm not convinced the case is made.”

But Ward 10 Coun. Jim Morrison appears likely to side with his predecessor Paul Borelli in supporting outsourcing.

A $305,000 annual savings, especially when no one's going to lose their job, is “substantial,” Morrison said. “I just can't overlook that.”

Opposing outsourcing in 2017 were councillors Chris Holt and Rino Bortolin, plus departed councillors John Elliott, Irek Kusmierczyk and Bill Marra. Elliott's replacement Fabio Costante said while he'll have questions Monday, his leaning has always been in support of workers, and “you can't escape the fact these are good-paying jobs in our community that have spinoff effects.”

Kusmierczyk's replacement Jeewen Gill said he had not yet read the report so could not provide an opinion. Marra's replacement Gary Kaschak said he is “definitely” against outsourcing. He said previous outsourcing attempts have created too much turmoil.

“I believe these are good-paying jobs, that people buy homes and cars and spend money in our economy in the city,” he said.