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Town employees ready to walk off job The Town of Whitby's inside and outside workers have voted to strike if negotiations between the town and the Canadian Union of Public Employees do not resume. Members of CUPE Local 53 voted over- whelmingly last Thur- sday night to strike if the current impass is not resolved. They will be in a legal position to strike 16 days after the Ontario Ministry of Labor officials hand down a "no board" report signifying that conciliation bas failed. The "no board" had not been handed down at press time although both town and CUPE of- ficials expected to receive it yesterday. Both Mayor Bob At- tersley and town ad- ministrator Bill Wallace said Friday that it is up to the union to return to the bargaining table. "It's up to the union," Attersley said, "We'll negotiate any time with them." "We've made our of- fer, it's a fair offer, and it stands." Wallace ad- 14, No. ded, "It's in the union's hands at this point." The administrator also said that-no new talks had been scheduled as of Friday. According to Dave Sarookanian, president of Local 53, its up to the town to return to the table. "No agreement has been reached, we haven't got any choice, it almost looks like the employer wants us to strike," he said adding, "We're ready to sit down and talk any time." Wei Both parties say that monetary issues have been successfully resolved. and that the current dispute is over job security, job descriptions and other contract language issues. Sarookanian said that the town verbally agrees with much of what the local is demanding but does not want to commit them- selves in writing. The president said that the union went into negotiations "realizing the economic climate" 23, 1984 and decided to go after non-monetary issues. * "They were willing to look at things outside the contract," Sarookanian claimed. The last time CUPE Local 53 went on strike was in 1980 and then only for one day. That dispute was over money. Sarookanian said that his members are willing to walk out over this issues and described them as "serious". "People are willing to strike over non- monetary issues," he 20 This year's festivities will be held at Heydenshore Pavilion Besides the chili cooking awards, the showmanship com- beginning at 6 p.m. this Friday and will continue throughout petition at this weekend's CHOO Chili Cook-off means the weekend. costumes and more costumes (such as the ones seen above). Chili gets cookedthisweekend The fresh lake air surrounding Heyden- shore Pavilion will be full of the aroma of hot chili this weekend as the fifth annual CHOO Chili Cook-off gets under way. Also filling the air will be sounds of country music all weekend as part of the local radio station's effort to raise money for the Canadian Cerebral Palsy Foun- dation. The event gets under this Friday at 6 p.m. when the local Post Of- fice employees open their beverage tent to teh sounds of "JR and the Outlaws." At 9 p.m., "Mountain Country" will take to the stage until1 a.m. Both Saturday and Sunday morning - beginning at8 a.m. - the Whitby Boy Scouts will hold a pancake break- fast. Also slated for the weekend are such even- ts as a lemon rol con- test (Saturday at 10 a.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.) and a tug-of-war between various police officers' associations (Saturday at 3 p.m.) Also slated are the finals of CHOO's local talent search which will be hosted by Bill John- ston on Sunday at 3 p.m. There wil also be two classes of chili cooking competition. One will be a showmanship contest for the teams that dress the most outrageously as well as a contest to see who can brew the world's hottest and strongest chili. Also scheduled to en- tertain throughout the weekend are "Buster Fykes", "The Diamon Reo Band" and "Shotgun". For the children there will also be a midway, the Canada Sport Fit- ness test as well as a host of concession booths. The Durham Region Girl Guides will also be on hand to supervise kids' games and give out prizes. There will also be a draw for beef steaks and a propane gas bar- beque. Saturday, ail chili will be cooked "Texas style" with the first prize win- ner receiving $200. The first place winner in the showmanship contest will also receive $200. On Sunday, it will be the first CHOO Canadian Chili Cham- pionship with the first place winner also receiving $200 in prize money. Admission to the grounds will be $3 a day for adults and children under 12 will be admit- ted free. added, "It must be pret- ty serious when people are willing to take that step over non-monetary issues."1 The local is currently in the process of setting up a strike headquar- ters and has already secured the support of CUPE locals represen- ting workers in the towns of Pickering and Ajax. Sarookanian said that each of those locals are prepared to support Whitby to the tune of one day's pay each week per member. The Town of Ajax settled with its workers last week. That decision, Sarookanian added, was made three weeks ago before Whitby workers were faced with a possible strike. "By no means do the employees want to strike," he said, "But the town has put us in a position of no alter- native." "If we can resolve it without a strike, that'Hl be great." If negotiations do not resume, town em- ployees could be in a legal position to strike as early as June 11. From Plastic Surface Finishers.... Spill sends 300 gallons of chromium into regional sewer system Durham, Region Public Works officials will decide whether or not to charge a local manufîcturing with violating the regional sewer use bylaw sometime in the next week or two. In the early hours of May 31, 300 gallons of almost pure chromic acid was accidently spilt into the region's sewer system. ·According to Art Leit- ch, applied operations manager of the regional works department, the spill occured at Plastic Surface Finishers Ltd. on Burns St. E. However, the spill was contained before it did any damage to the biological section of the Corbett Creek Water Pollution Control Plant. If the chromium had reached that part of the plant it would have been closed down, putting Whitby sewer services under tremendouse strain. The chromium was isolated in one of the plant's two primary clarifying tanks where it was mixed in with about 500,000 gallons of effluent. "We were able to isolate the spill," Leitch said, "Fortunately that prevented it from gaining access to the biological part of- the plant." While some samples of the spill have been sent to the Ontario Ministry of the En- vironment for further testing, original tests conducted by the region showed -chromium levels in the effeluent to be six times the stan- dard demanded by the sewer use bylaw. Leitch said that the region found 29 milligrams of chromium per litre af- ter treatment in the ef- - fluent. The bylaw calls for no more than five milligrais per litre. "That's quite a con- centration," he said ad- ding that before initial treatment the chromium was probably almost pure. Throughout last week, Plastic Surface Finishers conducted a clean-up operation at its own expense. Leitch said that during the clean-up operation- a special chemical will be added to the effluent to force the chromium to the bottom of the tank, where as sludge, it can be removed and trucked away for proper disposal. "The company is down there on their own expense," Leitch said Friday afternoon. "It's not going to be an inex- pensive operation and it's not going to be an easy task (to clean it up)." Leitch added that Plastic Surface Finishers had hired an independant treatment specialist company to help them remove the chromium from the ef- fluent. He is also convinced that the spill was an ac- cident. "It was an actual spill," he said, "It was more along the lines of an accident." Leitch said that it will take about two weeks for the Ministry of the Environment to conduct its tests. Plastic Surface Finishers have been previously convicted of violating the regional sewer use bylaw and were fined a total of $3,500. 'j --,77V j