City workers’ union elects surprise new president

After six years, Tim Maguire lost the vote to Dave Mitchell

Tim Maguire is blaming his loss as president of the city of Toronto inside workers’ union on members’ feelings of “instability” after years of contract concessions and budget restraint. In a shock to many CUPE Local 79 members — including himself, Maguire admitted — his six-year run as president ended Tuesday when Dave Mitchell, from the city’s transportation division, got more votes in the local’s election.

Maguire said in an interview Wednesday he is proud of his work rallying roughly 20,000 members to fight cost-cutting by the mayoral administrations of Rob Ford and then John Tory, and reaching out to community organizations and other “allies” to pressure council to maintain or increase city services and jobs.

But he acknowledged lingering resentment over their 2016 concession-laded contract, accepted by members grudgingly after a work-torule campaign amid the spectre of a strike or lockout, which followed a 2012 deal that was also a bitter pill.

He also noted that, to keep property tax hikes at or below the rate of inflation, city council has approved “gapping” — leaving jobs vacant and shifting the workload to save money — while making cuts.

“Both at the bargaining table and budget time, the city has choices and it’s chosen to attack that job stability and not provide services and jobs as stable as they can be,” Maguire said. “Those bargaining rounds are part of (the loss) for sure.

“I think the new leadership is going to be dealing with the same challenges that the current leadership has been dealing with, and I will provide whatever support I can to ensure they can deal with those challenges.”