We, the undersigned, part-time recreation workers, members of CUPE Local 79 and members of the public, present to the union this petition for fairness among and between its workers. CUPE 79, in contravention to their own standard Job Evaluation agreement as laid out in Articles 9.4, 9.5, and especially 9.6 which reads "No incumbent will have their wages reduced following the re-evaluation of their job and the establishment of a new wage structure," turned the decisions of wage harmonization entirely over to an outside arbitrator, rather than negotiating for and ensuring fairness between its workers. As a result, part-time recreation instructors across the city of Toronto are suffering wage cuts much greater than the 10% cuts asked for by the City Council (many as high as 35%), while other workers within the union have retained their current pay rate. The information the arbitrator received from the union led to a misinformed definition of these jobs as "transient and transitory" - the reason the arbitrator refused to red circle wages - and we ask that workers have a voice on this issue with the union. In summary, a basic tenet of the union's gender neutral evaluation agreement is that wage harmonization should not be enacted on the backs of any workers. We ask that CUPE 79 - a union that has been collecting dues from these workers - adhere to their own Job Evaluation agreement and thus fight for the exemption of part-time recreation workers' drastic wage cuts in order to restore fairness and equity, and thus, real harmonization, among all recreation workers.

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