Toronto's 40-day garbage strike ends

TORONTO, Aug. 1 (UPI) -- A strike by 30,000 Toronto civic workers that left Canada's largest city with 25,000 tons of garbage in public ended after an acrimonious city council vote.

On the 40th day of the strike by 24,000 inside and 6,000 outside workers, the city council debated for hours Friday on accepting the offer made to the two locals of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, the Toronto Star reported.

By a 21-17 vote, the city passed the deal the two locals accepted this week, giving workers almost six percent pay increases over the next three years, the Toronto Sun said.

Self-proclaimed socialist Mayor David Miller was accused throughout the heated debate of caving on his pledge to end the longstanding benefit of union members banking up to 18 sick days a year that can be cashed in for early retirement.

The new deal ends the practice for new hires and offers current employees the option of cashing them in now and enrolling in a short-term disability plan.

On Saturday, workers began cleaning out more than 25 temporary dump sites from city parks and public areas, the reports said.

The strike also shut down ferry service, public swimming pools, golf courses, daycare and summer youth programs and licensing operations.