The Toronto Strike / Where To Take Your Trash [Updated]

This really sucks for renters, the elderly and people without cars. During the last strike, I saw the glaring class divide around public works. Essentially, those with the means weren’t especially effected by it. They could either pay to have private services truck their crap or else haul it themselves. And they don’t have to worry about their kids having stuff to do at parks ‘n rec because their kids can go and enjoy mom and dad’s health club, go to camp or pack up in the car and have fun up at a lake. As an inner city kid, I was dependent on parks ‘n rec for my summer fun. So this is really the worst for the urban poor – particularly the children.

The other thing to watch is the news coverage. If you watch CTV there’s plenty of talk about drop off points – because the classist assumption that everybody has access to a car. There are thousands of people in Toronto who do not. We don’t have a car out of choice, but many don’t have a car simply because it’s too costly. People’s responses to this strike are mediated by their access to alternatives.

Will be interesting to see if the local MSM has any solid advice for renters and the urban poor. Not just people with the means for “alternatives.”

I have a better idea:

Drop your garbage off at:
34 St. Patrick Street, Toronto, Ontario M5T 1V1

and let CUPE handle it.

I heard a story once of a guy who got rid of his garbage by gift wrapping it and leaving it in his car so people would steal it.

I am a adult who is disabled and I am worryed about being able to even use the side walk I sure arnt going to wheel my wheelchair down the street when the sidewalks fill up with garbage and are to full to use. This is what I and other had to do last time and I will not risk my life again trying this. Does anyone esle have similar problems it may be with your kids or a strolller or even the parking lot some people are going to use as a dump.

Thanks Joey, this post is very helpful. I’m looking out for more alternatives for those without private transportation.

Re The Garbage Strike

Our City Management lacks leadership:
Why did this so-called Management give themselves a raise when we taxpayers get a paycut and “enjoy” workshare programs?
Why are they allowing strikers to block taxpayers dropping off garbage at transfer stations…these strikers should be charged for obstruction?
Why don’t they offer these jobs to the laid-off GM employees in Oshawa or anywhere else who are willing to have a job and not care about sick days off?
Is the City Management and these strikers oblivious of the economy situation or are they just plain dumb?

Just look around, pay attention to neighbouring Cities who manage successfully, and no garbage strikes.

Just a thought … If Toronto residents are really fed up being held hostage under mounds of garbage, why not simply dump your garbage off in front of those picket lines of striking civil servants? Similarly, why not dump your garbage off at municipal offices, police stations, the mayor’s residence, the residence’s of City councilors, etc.? Wouldn’t that make cleanup easier once the strike is over? (Always think ahead).

If anything, once opposing sides in this dispute are directly exposed to the rotting refuse they so flagrantly inflict on local citizenry, the smell alone might help remind them that their primary commitment is to the taxpayer.

Personally, and as a rural resident, I have no great love for the hopelessly gridlocked, multi-confused ‘Big Smoke’ or whatever misery its residents so willfully endure. It could be argued that the smell of rotting garbage is a noticable improvement. It’s all part of the “Manhattanization” experiment you sewer rats were all so fond of.

I’m fascinated by the entirely self-absorbed perspective that CUPE strikers appear to have. Are they aware of the bigger picture? Jobs being lost across the company, privatization looming? I just went to the local transfer station to drop off a small commercial load and was informed by charming picketers that they aren’t taking small business loads. I guess CUPE has duped workers into thinking that small business owners can find dump sites elsewhere… as if the rest of the city should just run around and figure things out while CUPE workers sit by the fires they’ve started in their bins. CUPE workers are living in another century if they think this is going to improve their situation. I vote for privatization – why are we wasting any more time?

Hi all,

My experience with the workers in this strike are the tireless part timers who work in my local parks and community centers, as well as people who have devoted time to projects in the community and of course the trash collectors that work on my street.
The city is asking for HUGE concessions from their current employees. People seem to think the employees are asking for huge raises, but that is not the case. For the part timers I meet most often the current deal includes a reduced work week (by half), reduced job security through reserving the right to move them to anywhere in the city at the beginning of the season.

As a citizen who uses these programs, I cannot support such concessions. The benefits of having the people who work in my local park or community center be from the nieghbourhood, means they have a stake in making that place function well. I have watched the management of services in parks and community centers being centralized over the past several years creating ridiculous situations. I see the package on the table from the city as further centralizing management and creating an even more transient workforce.

I feel frustrated and just wanted to put this perspective out there.

I am out the job because the strike, i’m a machine operator from a city contract and this problem got nothing to do with me, but i have to bring food to my family’s table every day. so PLEASE THINK ABOUT IT.