30,000 Toronto city workers on strike

TORONTO, June 22 (UPI) -- Toronto, Canada's largest city, was without garbage collection, city daycare centers and ferry service Monday as 30,000 public workers went on strike.

Some 24,000 inside and 6,000 outside members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees began picketing after 1 a.m. when talks broke down, the Toronto Star reported.

CUPE has rejected numerous city offers on wages and replacing sick day accumulation with short-term disability, and claims its members aren't getting the same deal as police and fire services got last year.

At a 1 a.m. news conference, Mayor David Miller, who isn't actively involved in the negotiations, told reporters the 2008 collective agreement was from a different time.

"The world has changed. The city has extremely serious budget challenges," Miller said. "One needs only to look at our welfare rolls to understand that."

The strike shut down garbage collection except in one western part of the city that has a private contract. It also shuttered city day care centers, ferry service to the Toronto Islands, stopped park and pool maintenance and canceled events on public property, the Toronto Sun said.

The urban population of 2.5 million people was last hit by a similar strike in 2002, which the provincial government ended with back-to-work legislation.