The union representing City of Toronto outside workers, which lost curbside waste collection for 165,000 homes to a private contractor, is trying to lure the contractor’s staff into the union fold.

CUPE Local 416 president Mark Ferguson told the Star his union has, since August, handed out union cards at the works yards of Green for Life (GFL) Environmental Corp. across Toronto and York Region.

“We are active in a campaign to unionize the workers of Green for Life,” Ferguson said Tuesday of CUPE National, which co-ordinates union drives. “We’re working both in Toronto and York to ensure that those employees are treated with respect — that they earn a living wage and that they do have some semblance of benefits and retirement security.

“I think most Torontonians would like to see that city employees, and those employees of companies that do work for the city, are treated fairly.”

Ferguson would not reveal how many GFL employees have signed union cards, saying only he is “encouraged by the results we’ve seen to date.”

Under Ontario law, a union must get signed cards from 40 per cent of staff at a workplace to trigger a Ministry of Labour-supervised vote. Certification takes place if more than half the workers vote in favour. A union drive can continue indefinitely.

Council voted last year to contract out curbside collection between the Humber River and Yonge St. to GFL, which has since bought the company that also provides private curbside collection in Etobicoke.

The city’s seven-year, $142-million west Toronto contract with GFL was forecast to save taxpayers $11 million per year. Ferguson, who is running for re-election as Local 416 president in November, says recently released city figures suggest the savings will be much less.

Private collectors earn close to wages of city staff and significantly cheaper benefits packages. Fewer workers are used to do the same routes.

GFL’s bright green trucks began rumbling through the streets in early August, triggering a flurry of residents’ complaints over missed homes and late pickups. City officials say service has vastly improved since then, while Ferguson calls the privatization “an unmitigated disaster.”

The city has a contract with fixed prices, so if GFL employees certify with CUPE, that is an issue between the company and the union, said Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong (Ward 34, Don Valley East), chair of the public works committee.

“If in seven or eight years we put the contract out for tender again, GFL would have to compete with other private contractors and the lowest bid would win,” he said.

“If (Local) 416 represented their workers, I suspect they would price their members out of their jobs.”

GFL chief executive Patrick Dovigi seemed unconcerned about the CUPE drive when contacted Tuesday.

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“We get lots of unions trying to certify,” he said. “If the members choose to certify, we will negotiate a collective agreement. If they don’t choose to certify, then they don’t certify. We don’t control the workers — they’re free to join a union or not.”

He could not say how many GFL workers now collect Toronto trash, estimating they number in the “hundreds.”