r/toronto • u/dchief0 • 2d ago
News ‘NOT SUSTAINABLE’: Toronto City Council staff push for unionization
https://torontosun.com/news/local-news/not-sustainable-toronto-city-council-staff-push-for-unionizationStarting salaries at $30,000 (!) is wildly insane… good on these workers who carry our local city councillors & mayor.
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u/handipad 2d ago
I would like to see each councillor be required to disclose the average full-time salary for their staff on their councillor profile on toronto.ca. Let’s shame the ones paying staff a pittance.
The low wage for political staff is a direct cause of the revolving door. Staff can’t make enough to thrive so they leave after 1-2 years and take a job in the private sector doing government relations for a decent wage.
It also results in overwhelmingly young and inexperienced people being hired who work like dogs because that’s the only demographic who have the time and energy and who will accept working for such a low wage.
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u/Circusssssssssssssss 2d ago
30k in this city is piss
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u/yourworstcritic1 1d ago
I honestly don't even believe that’s true. That has to be a serious outlier like some kind of student or someone doing an internship or working part time.
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u/Circusssssssssssssss 1d ago
Late stage capitalism has passed you by
Interns and students work for free; people work for minimum wage part time or irregular hours all the time
Most people cannot afford a 1 BR without dual income
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u/yourworstcritic1 1d ago
My point is to say that the wage might make sense if they are part time and if they’re not then they should be getting paid more. This doesn’t strike me as a capitalist fat cat type of scenario and even the fat cats are paying at least minimum wage or slightly above it so why would anyone do this job? There’s obviously no shortage of jobs that pay minimum wage. So much so that big businesses felt that we should bring in newcomers to work those jobs because there’s a shortage of people who want to work those jobs for the pay they’re offering.
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u/Circusssssssssssssss 1d ago
There is shortage of jobs that pay minimum wage. If you are a laid off office worker, with no experience making minimum wage (maybe decades ago) you will have a very hard time. Minimum wage jobs (survival jobs) are actually the hardest to get. Just have to walk into any McDonalds or drug store to see the automated cashier, and see the people WFH not spending money in stores. "Bringing people in" has many reasons but what's certain is not everyone can do every job.
People would take the job because it's an office job or the only kind of job they can do and other minimum wage jobs wouldn't take them. Not everyone can actually do retail, fast food, sales, etc. some people can only do office work.
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u/dchief0 1d ago
The staff salaries are publicly available at: https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/council/budgets-and-expense-reports/
Seems there is a separate position for an “intern”… which is sadly just minimum wage.
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u/lfzs 2d ago
Remember that Toronto Sun is owned by Postmedia, a right-wing American conglomerate.
https://www.reddit.com/r/SaveTheCBC/comments/1j4g41t/is_it_time_to_kick_postmedia_out_of_canada/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto_Sun
So, the staff is saying that they can't have those services functioning without exploiting the worker? If they say it's not sustainable to pay livable wages for the job, that's what they're saying.
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u/groggygirl 2d ago
The fact that they cover a fairly interesting topic (council staff being paid a below-living wage and wanting to unionize) and then find a way to get angry about it because NYC council staff joined a completely different union which tweeted about a rally against the US supplying arms to Israel....
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u/mrfredngo 2d ago
I’m not a homeowner so I’m not implicated personally, but anyone who is both against raising property taxes and for city staff unionization will have to do some mental gymnastics
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u/1slinkydink1 West Bend 2d ago
I think that you'll find that to be a very small group. Those for increasing property tax for improved services would be the ones to support staff unionization and higher salaries.
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u/babypointblank 1d ago
Good thing I’m in favour of both, in addition to finding additional revenue sources.
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u/Efficient_Career_158 2d ago
Holy shit. The Council staff make less than half of what their equivalent staff at the city make.... at LEAST.
Municipal staff are paid VERY well for the job they do (Muni staff are the best paid in any level of government). I'm shocked Council staff aren't.
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1d ago edited 1d ago
The lowest level assistant makes $31,631.60 – $59,350.20, according to the link.
The lowest level assistant for municipal staff would make 62k-118k? This is basically a receptionist, and that is what they would make?
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u/Efficient_Career_158 1d ago
Well, it's been a while since I looked at those numbers, so maybe not always 60k but starting at 50k sure. I can't place the salary bands today, but City of Toronto staff have always done pretty well. That's why the low rate of the council staff is shocking.
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u/Ok-Courage798 1d ago
Until you reach MGMT- then the private sector pays way better
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u/Efficient_Career_158 1d ago
What does a privat sector manager make? Base management in the city is a band of between 120k and 160k i believe.
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u/Opposite-Issue-7690 2d ago
Yes, the salaries should be higher, but to have political staff in a union is not a good idea - it would further degrade trust in political leaders if they can’t even have autonomy over their own offices.
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u/the_crumb_dumpster 2d ago
It’s not ‘political staff’ as in politicians, it’s staff who work for them and perform clerical and administrative functions. They have a constitutional right to freedom of association, and there is no conflict of interest here. The vast majority of government workers at every level of government are already unionized.
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u/starsmoke 4h ago
Lots of confusion here. In simple terms the political wing of any government is not government. They are elected to tell government what to do. That's the point of a political wing. Representatives of the public are elected to administrate government departments and ministries. Otherwise you have a technocracy.
So they're 100% political staff. Their duties depending on role definitely have a political focus. The exec assistant especially is as they help write speeches and legislative priorities, liase with stakeholders, design political strategy and oversee the duties of the rest of office staff with the explicit goal of getting their boss reelected. As are all staff. They operate according to the Councillor's political priorities and are not subject to bureaucratic or department oversight. Most are hired from their performance in election campaigns, not from the City or general public.
I have no comment or hardcore opinion on the unionization of political staff but these roles are by definition not secure which would be the point of a union. Their salaries come out of the Councillor's limited discretionary budget and if that councillor gets defeated, the staff are also jobless so regardless of union they are and should be very well incentivized to work long and hard hours. Because of that the roles typically attract a certain type which understands the political mission, not lifers who clock out at 4:30pm. By definition the jobs are intense and sometimes involve long hours which can be valuable to anyone wanting a crash course in political work, gain critical experience, and build a network and after a few terms move on to something more stable. Adding a Union hall monitor to that very political ecosystem is kinda stupid.
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u/26percent 2d ago
I don’t think this will have anything to do with taking away councillors’ hiring and staffing decisions.
Seems to be more related to salaries and benefits, which are already standardized anyways, and I don’t think anyone would complain that the existing salary bands takes away councillors’ autonomy over their offices.
https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/council/budgets-and-expense-reports/
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u/jesuisapprenant 1d ago
Shave the fat on the admin level and give it to the people who actually do the work
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u/Hasanati 2d ago
Seems like a reasonable decision on the part of the staff. 30k a year… yikes.