No service resumption date set

Summer is still on hold.

When a tentative deal was reached between striking unions and the city on Monday Mayor David Miller said the next challenge is “bringing summer back.”

But today, Miller was unable release details of when city services, such as garbage collection and day camps, would resume. As of this afternoon, CUPE local 416 had yet to schedule a vote on the tentative agreement with the city.

“The intent of this press conference was to announce a schedule for the resumption of services. Until (CUPE) locals 79 and 416 sign on to back-to-work protocol, we can’t do that,” Miller said this afternoon. “I regret that.”

He added, “We wanted to have our employees back to work as early as Thursday morning.”

He said the city has resumed as much as it can with non-union and management and cannot provide any additional programming until the unions come back to the job.

“They are not locked out. They can come back to work any time,” Miller said.

Members of CUPE local 79 are currently in the process of voting at the downtown Sheraton Hotel on the tentative contract with the city.

Mark Ferguson, president of local 416, confirmed in a statement on his the website that the union is still working out some details.

“We have not yet been able to schedule the vote because we are still trying to complete an important back-to-work protocol with the city. We need this protocol to protect our work doing the clean up of the city and ensure there are no reprisals against any individuals for actions during the strike,” he stated today. “The protocol must be in place before we hold the vote to ratify the tentative agreement.”