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This article was published 23/4/2010 (3813 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Overflowing garbage in the North End could be a common sight across the city if BFI workers can’t resolve their labour dispute.

It could be a long, hot -- and stinky -- summer in Winnipeg this year.

That's because the BFI workers who pick up all of the residential garbage in the city have voted overwhelmingly to go on strike.

TYLER ANDERSON / CANWEST NEWS SERVICE ARCHIVES The garbage collectors’ strike in Toronto last year wasn’t a pretty sight.

It would be the city's first-ever garbage strike and, if the experience in Toronto last summer is any indication, expect mountains of garbage, flies and a fetid odour.

On Thursday night, the 115 members of Teamsters Local No. 979 voted 94 per cent in favour of going on strike after talks with BFI broke off earlier this month.

The workers, who also pick up about half of the city's commercial waste in bins, as well as garbage and recyclables at apartment buildings, have been working without a contract since last November.

The workers also provide services that would be impacted in Selkirk, East St. Paul and Portage la Prairie.

Eric Jorgensen, the union's business manager, said no date for a strike has been set and a conciliation meeting has been scheduled for next week.

"We hope for the best and plan for the worst," Jorgensen said on Friday.

"If we're on strike, there will be extra residential refuse sitting on the street... there are other issues than wages, but wages are a factor.

"We have some hurdles to get over. It will be difficult."

More than 24,000 of Toronto's 30,000 civic workforce went on strike for six weeks last summer. However, it was the garbage collectors that raised the biggest stink.

As the refuse piled up, the city was forced to spray chemicals on temporary dump sites to reduce the smell and keep away rodents.

For years in Winnipeg, civic crews picked up garbage in some areas while private contractors covered other parts.

But in 2005, the city privatized all garbage collection against the protests of the civic union. Since then, the city has granted garbage-collecting contracts only to BFI.

The strike vote also comes in the wake of Mayor Sam Katz and a majority of councillors coming under fire for the controversial rollout of rolling garbage carts in northwest Winnipeg in February.

Just three weeks after the city replaced garbage cans with BFI's rolling garbage carts, the chairman of the public works committee was saying the plan may have been a mistake and elected officials were making changes to the collection system adding more than $700,000 in costs to the $1.9-million contract.

"We have to say, 'we told you so,' " said Mike Davidson, president of CUPE 500, which represents city workers, including former civic garbage collectors.

"We've lost public control over residential garbage pickup. They could go on strike and the politicians can't do anything.

"Why we would give that all up is beyond me."

Davidson said civic garbage workers never went on strike.

"We were always willing to work with the employer to provide the very best of service," he said. "The losers ultimately will be the citizens of Winnipeg -- they had a reliable garbage service.

"And we're coming into an election this year, too. Will that come into this?"

A city spokeswoman said in an email response, "BFI has their own strike contingency plan and would still be required to fulfil their contract obligations.

"They would draw on their resources elsewhere in Canada and the U.S. The city's manager of solid waste services and his staff would be in close contact with BFI to ensure collection service is maintained."

When asked whether the city would support BFI's use of replacement workers, the spokeswoman replied: "The city has many contracts with BFI and it is our expectation that they will manage themselves accordingly to honour those contracts."

Jorgensen said if the company tries to collect garbage using its 60 trucks per day "there are only a couple of places where that waste can go to here. "Would there be picket lines there? There might be."

Coun. Dan Vandal said he's concerned about the possibility of a strike.

"I and other councillors have made it clear that giving a 100 per cent monopoly to one firm creates risks and this is one of them," Vandal said.

"What do we do now? My prime concern right now is to make sure the residents we represent don't have to suffer through a prolonged garbage strike."

BFI Canada spokeswoman Chaya Cooperberg said the company is looking forward to next week's meeting.

"We are optimistic we can reach a resolution that's agreeable to both parties," she said.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca