Citing an impasse in negotiations with CUPE Local 416 yesterday, the City filed a "no board" request with the province that paved the way for a possible strike or lockout of Torontos 6000 outside workers in early February. Today the union has announced that it's willing to freeze wages for the next three years, an offer that's presumably designed to show, counter to the City's claims, that it's willing to make some concessions.

The problem is, of course, that the rhetoric from the City regarding these negotiations has centred on issues like job security provisions rather than wages. As Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday wrote in a Toronto Sun op-ed piece a week and a half ago, "It would be much simpler if this round of collective bargaining was simply about wages and benefits. Sure that matters, a lot, but it goes far deeper than that and there is far more at stake."

Take of that what you will, but if the City has so-called bigger fish to fry, today's announcement from Ferguson likely won't sway its negotiators much if at all. That means a labour disruption on our about February 3rd is every bit as likely as it was yesterday.

Photo by twurdemann in the blogTO Flickr pool