Wednesday, March 18, 2026
One year ago, Toronto City Council staff took the historic step of holding a vote to unionize with AMAPCEO. These workers provide integral services to the people of Toronto. Their skills, dedication, and hard work support City Councillors and the Mayor as they make critical decisions for Toronto and its residents.
But they face incredibly challenging working conditions, including high workloads, long hours, intense pressure, minimal compensation increases, little job security, and harassment and intimidation—and many on a salary of less than $33,000.
These workers chose AMAPCEO to help them advocate for fairness, transparency, and security at work, and to fight for a better, fairer future for all City of Toronto employees in Council offices. They chose us to help them form a union—as is their Charter right.
In response, the City of Toronto and several individual Councillors have thrown challenge after challenge at them, desperate to see if anything will stick.
First, the City of Toronto disputed their status as the employer, despite the fact that the City of Toronto is the name on staff’s paycheques and contracts, and despite the fact that the City has identified itself as the employer in its own public documents.
Then several individual Councillors—first four, then an additional eleven—filed for “intervenor” status in the process, claiming to be a party to the legal proceedings on the basis that they are the employers of the staff that report to them.
As a result, Toronto City Council Staff’s unionization votes remain with the Ontario Labour Relations Board, uncounted, until these legal challenges are resolved.
At every turn, AMAPCEO has pushed for speed in this process, and has offered the City and its Councillors the opportunity to do the right thing and drop their challenges to let the union votes be counted. And at every turn, they have refused.
These challenges are nothing more than an attempt to delay the unionization process and demoralize staff. But Toronto City Council staff and AMAPCEO will not be deterred.
Just this week, AMAPCEO reached out to the Mayor and to every City Councillor, again urging them to drop their challenges and to voluntarily recognize AMAPCEO as the union of these employees.
But if they still refuse to see sense, if they still insist on standing in the way of employees’ rights, AMAPCEO will stand firm. AMAPCEO will see these challenges through and will continue to fight for Toronto City Council Staff. We will continue to fight for their right to form a union, and we will continue to fight for a better, fairer future at City Hall.