To the City of Toronto and the CUPE Local 416 and Local 79 Unions to End the Strike Swiftly

We, the undersigned, hereby request the City of Toronto and the CUPE Unions 416 and 79, to reach a swift resolution to this strike which has lasted for nearly two weeks and has inconvenienced millions of people in the largest city in Canada.

As public servants, you have the responsibility to ensure that you deliver swift and efficient service to the residents of Toronto, who are paying increasing amount of taxes in a time of recession for this privilege. Our increasing taxes will be going toward paying for your very competitive salaries and benefits packages, yet members of the CUPE 79 and 416 and the City of Toronto are not doing the work that they are already being so well paid for.

Furthermore, whether the City is being fair or unfair in the bargaining, the Unions DO NOT have the right to hold the public hostage for their financial demands. The Unions DO NOT have the right to force Toronto's parks and green space to be used as garbage dumps. The Unions DO NOT have the right to jeopardize our health, especially those of the children and the elderly, due to rotting and exposed garbage; the Unions DO NOT have the right to force parents to stay home and lose pay from their work because their daycare is shut down due to the strike (this is just a small list of the many sufferings that Torontonians are undergoing as a direct result of the strike!)

We further ask that if the City and the Unions are unable to negotiate a settlement quickly to end this strike by July 10th 2009, then the Ontario Provincial Government step in with a back-to-work legislation and an arbitrator. We refuse to suffer in silence, be held hostage and made to feel powerless to effect any changes!