It’s near impossible to over-hype the depth, scope and ferocity of the conflict that is about to engulf Toronto and its civic unions.

City managers are learning how to operate heavy equipment. Senior bureaucrats have put in place contingency plans to run operations minus 29,000 employees. And the civic unions are telling their members to expect a long, tough winter without a regular paycheque.

Retailers had better not be depending on Christmas sales from city workers. They’ll be the ones squirreling away pennies in a rainy day fund, even as storm clouds gather over labour negotiations.

Expect Armageddon. Prepare for a War of the Worlds. Mayor Rob Ford has been spoiling for this epic showdown since he arrived at Toronto city hall almost 11 years ago as a councillor from Etobicoke.

Ford Nation is rubbing its digits in glee, champing for a bite out of the hide of those lazy, no-good, overpaid city workers.

The labour movement is not a disinterested observer. Capitulate and lose here, and every two-bit mayor across the land will want to emulate the Ford-tough mayor and mount an assault on the wages and benefits of all organized workers. So, expect a massing of union support for the Toronto workers.

And where does the Toronto majority stand, the sensible, reasonable, middle-of-the road residents who prefer peace, order and good government — without the chaos and conflict of unnecessary confrontation?

No doubt, the majority dislike the exaggerated “jobs for life” provisions in the civic contracts. But how far are they prepared to go to rid the city of the benefit few of them have at their workplaces?

It may take months to find out. But this is certain:

Rob Ford is intent on breaking the union. And the unions will not surrender hard-won benefits and job security without spending months pounding the pavement.

Ford has spared little in his condemnation of city workers. He sees them as over-paid, over-priced appendages the city can discard. He ran on a platform of less government. He exists to shed city hall jobs.

It’s a little naive to think the two sides can just sit down at the bargaining table and work out their differences. They are irreconcilable. The middle ground is detested. And the current contract expires Jan. 1.

Management has delivered 21 pages of demands that essentially gut the workers’ contract and benefits. There is no sign of sweeteners to make such a poison palatable. And the union has responded by going on a media offensive. Here’s what’s at play.

The administration is determined to wring concessions out of the union. And Ford is insistent on avoiding a strike during summer, when rotting garbage is the union’s most effective cudgel. So, he must provoke them into a strike or lock them out.

Strategically, the union won’t take the workers out on strike. So, while it’s normal to go without a contract for months while talks drag on, this time the city must lock out the workers, as early as late January, in order to force a labour disruption in the winter months.

What if the workers survive on the picket line past April? The city is looking at other tactics — maybe even unilaterally imposing new contract positions that eliminate current union benefits. Apparently, that tactic is available. But if a lockout is a declaration of war, such a unilateral abridgement of existing (though expired) benefits would be like dropping a nuclear bomb into the conflict.

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Yet, that move is being contemplated.

No wonder the labour world will be descending on Toronto in the new year — a gathering that could make Occupy Toronto look like a picnic.