Following his recent public statement published on BradfordToday, Mayor James Leduc provided further clarity about how and why he responded to Bradford’s striking library workers and supporters disrupting council on Tuesday evening.
Bradford West Gwillimbury Library workers have been on strike since July 21, after negotiations over their first collective agreement came to a head.
After the mayor allowed four people to speak about the library issue on Tuesday evening, he tried to make time for two other members of public to speak on other issues during open forum, but was instead met with shouts of disapproval from the crowd amid calls for his resignation.
“We have open forum for a reason, to allow residents to the option of speaking, but there is a time limit through our procedural bylaw,” he said.
The town’s website explains anyone who wants to provide a statement in open forum can do so in writing, or those wishing to speak in person can do so by signing the open forum register at the entrance to the council chambers, but notes comments must relate to an item on the agenda, and each statement should not take longer than five minutes.
The site also advises the public that if they want to discuss matters not on the agenda or if they would like to ask questions, “you are free to contact any member of council directly.”
The mayor clarified that council has the discretion to suspend the rules of the procedural bylaw.
“I was trying to be supportive. I wanted to show that we’re listening and we’re there. ... I chose to allow CUPE to speak the other night even though they weren’t on the agenda,” he said.
Those same rules also require comments to remain respectful and the mayor felt there were some instances in which people crossed that line and made personal attacks on members of council and staff.
“I’ve allowed some of those things to happen when I shouldn’t have ... It’s a very hard balance. It’s a very emotional situation we’re in here, and we all understand, we all value our employees, but it’s emotional and we want to take the emotion out of things sometimes,” he said.
This was the fourth regular meeting of council in a row at which people were allowed to speak about the issue of the library during open forum, with the first two instances also including time extensions.
On Tuesday evening, Katherine Grzejszczak, president of Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 905, which is representing the 36 striking library workers, asked the mayor to again extend the time for open forum, but he declined, and the crowd responded with more shouts of disapproval.
In response the mayor decided to recess the meeting, at which point the microphone and the feed for the live stream were cut.
Despite that, people continued to speak about the issue, and when Chris Harbour, manager of information technology, attempted to remove the microphone, a member of the audience approached, imploring staff to allow the speaker to continue.
While Harbour and the audience member seemed to resolve the matter amicably, and the audience member even put his arm around Harbour and patted him on the back, the mayor felt it necessary to remove the microphone from the table to prevent it from becoming a projectile.
“I had concerns about the staff’s safety, we had residents approaching the front where council sits and staff sits. My real concern was after seeing the gentleman come up and approach Chris Harbour trying to fix the mic or take the mic — that was concerning to me,” he said.
A baby stroller was used to bring into the council chamber a portable speaker and microphone, which Grzejszczak place on the table at which guests speak.
This took the mayor off guard.
“When I see someone take something out of a baby stroller, I get concerned. ... Next time, what’s going to come out of that stroller? In today’s society we have some concerns now, and we’re going to address it, because we were not prepared for what happened,” he said.
While seven more speakers used their ad-hoc setup to give council a piece of their minds, the mayor requested the assistance of South Simcoe Police Service officers, with the intention of having them clear the audience from the chamber so the meeting could resume.
However, after arriving, police advised the mayor against that idea.
“The choice was then made that I myself leave the chamber with other council member so we could stop the aggression,” he said, noting that some members of council were being targeted by comments from the audience.
As a result the mayor left the meeting as the crowd chanted “shame” and he was followed shortly thereafter by Ward 4 Coun. Joseph Giordano and Ward 6 Coun. Nickolas Harper.
The mayor described the union’s disruption as planned civil disobedience in which the group tried to “take over” the council agenda.
“It became a safety hazard, people were afraid. ... We had people blocking an exit. Four CUPE members left down an emergency exit council has and they went down that exit,” he said.
As a result of members leaving, combined with some absences, the meeting was adjourned for lack of quorum, meaning none of the matters on the agenda were addressed — including a motion to move into closed session to discuss library labour relations after the public meeting.
“This is going to set us back about a month, because we have things that need to be done and they weren’t done,” Leduc said.
While the mayor is trying to see some matters addressed as soon as he can, his focus remains on safety.
“Being the head of council, it’s my responsibility to ensure the safety of every individual in that room and I take that job very seriously. I want people to understand that when they come to our council chamber, that is safe place to conduct business, and if they want to talk to us, we’re there to listen, but when it gets to a point that it’s chaotic and disruptive, that is not be tolerated and we will adjust our system in future to make sure that doesn’t happen again,” he said, but the specifics of those adjustments were not available.
In the meantime, both parties have representatives at the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) in Toronto today for a mediation sessions in which both sides will submit their requests for a deal and supporting evidence.
If that session does not result in a deal, then the OLRB will have until Oct. 6 to decide whether or not to appoint an arbitrator.
In the meantime, the mayor urged CUPE to return to the bargaining table for a “fair and acceptable deal,” saying the union could potentially settle at anytime prior to the potential arbitrator’s ruling.
Otherwise, “if the arbitrator feels that we owe better than what we offered, we’re prepared to do that,” he said.
That could potentially mean raises for some other town staff, according to the mayor who defended his previous claim that providing the library workers with their requested wage increase would mean increases for about 450 other town employees, which he previously estimated would add $640,000 to the towns budget just in the first year, and cause a two per cent increase to town’s overall tax levy.
Despite some progress in other areas, wages have remained the sticking point of negotiations and the union is requesting a wage increase of $1.35 per hour per year for two years for library workers.
For weeks, the union has questioned the validity of the mayor’s claim as did Ward 2 Coun. Jonathan Scott, while speaking during a union rally prior to Tuesday night’s council meeting.
“Frankly, the argument that if we had to pay these workers a fair wage, we might have to give raises to everyone else doesn’t sit well with me. If that’s true, we have an even bigger problem on out hands,” he said.
On Thursday, the mayor still stood by his claim.
“The councillor should know we gave everybody a three per cent raise in the 2023 budget. ... After listening to some of the concerns from the table, the library board decided that they would enhance some of these (wages) to bring people up to a living wage,” he said.
The mayor acknowledged there are also other employees working for the town who are earning less than a living wage and he is hoping to change that.
“I want to be known as an equal and fair employer. ... We value our employees. We want to make sure that they’re making a fair wage, but I have to balance that with the taxpayer that’s paying the bill,” he said.
While the mayor acknowledged it hasn’t historically been the case that a raise for one group of town employees automatically meant a raise for others, he clarified that he is trying to maintain that fairness moving forward.
While videos from council meetings are usually archived on the town’s YouTube page, video of Tuesday night’s meeting remained unavailable as of Thursday morning; however, after speaking with staff, the mayor explained this was due to technical difficulties experienced that evening and said the video would be made available later.
However, portions of audio could potentially be missing as a result of malfunctioning equipment.
