Windsor fires dozens of employees as it eliminates seasonal, part-time caretaker jobs

The City of Windsor has fired dozens of caretaker staff that worked at arenas and community centres, according to the union that represents the employees.

CUPE Local 82 president Rob Kolody said the positions were eliminated by the city because an agreement couldn't be reached on job protection. 

Kolody said the union wanted a memorandum of understanding that would prevent the city from eliminating full-time, permanent positions while seasonal employees are employed. 

"We lost nine full-time jobs at the last round of bargaining, five in horticulture and four in parks, and all we were saying was is that as long as seasonal [employees] are here, you cannot continue to eliminate full-time positions," said Kolody.

He said the two sides came close to an agreement after 19 months of negotiations but a deal couldn't be reached. 

A spokesperson for the city declined to comment when asked for details about the job losses.

Kolody said he believes a deal can still be made that would brings the jobs back.

"I think it just needs to be understood: as long as there's full-time elimination of jobs, we can't have seasonal here. It's a fundamental basis for unions."

Work spread out across 8 full-time employees

Local 82, which represents about 320 people, recently ratified a four-year deal with the city that contains a 14 per cent raise over the life of the agreement. 

The eliminated seasonal, part-time positions were filled by people ranging from university students to employees with more than a decade of experience.

Some worked up to 40 hours a week and used the position to launch careers with the city. 

The jobs were eliminated earlier this month. 

"Effective Sunday management moved our full-time caretakers onto odd shifts, meaning that they could be working two days a week on day shift and then three shifts being afternoons," said Kolody. 

He said some are being sent to multiple arenas or community centres in a day.

'I think that the garbage [is] not obviously getting picked up as quickly. The floors are not being mopped or swept as frequently as otherwise would have been," said Kolody.

"There's just no way for eight full-time people to get the work of, if you added the 38 in, almost 46 people now."