Vancouver residents will likely have to deal with no garbage pickup and closed city facilities starting Monday, when inside civic workers are set to join outside workers on picket lines.

City engineering trucks were left idle at the Manitoba Works Yard on Friday, after outside workers formed picket lines.
(CBC)

CUPE Local 15, representing 3,500 inside workers, will be in a legal position to picket Monday morning, after it rejected a final contract offer and served 72 hour strike notice Friday.

Services such as day cares within community centres, building inspections and parking bylaw enforcement will be affected if inside workers carry out job action or refuse to cross picket lines.

Outside workers picketed at the National Works Yard near the Main SkyTrain Station in the south end of the city.
(CBC)

Outside workers, some carrying signs reading "C.U.P.E. Local 1004 On Strike," began picketing at noon outside the entrances to the National Works Yard near the Main Street SkyTrain station and the Manitoba Works Yard in South Vancouver. The union represents 1,800 outside workers.

The city's weekly residential garbage, recycling and yard trimmings collection services have already been temporarily suspended. 

The Vancouver Landfill in Delta and the Vancouver South Transfer Station on Kent Avenue in Vancouver are also closed to the public and private contractors until further notice.

CUPE Local 1004 president Michael Jackson said outside workers will picket for as long as it takes.
(CBC)

Mike Jackson, president of CUPE Local 1004, said Friday night that the two sides have not scheduled any new talks, and that the strike will last as long as it takes.

"I'm not chasing the employer; they can come to us. We were at the table. We haven't heard anything back," Jackson said.

Mayor Sam Sullivan said the city did everything it could to avert a strike and he's disappointed the union rejected the final offer, which he called "fair" and "generous."

The sticking point of the dispute is the length of the contract, Sullivan said.

The city proposed a wage increase of 9.75 per cent over 39 months, meaning the contract would expire just weeks after the 2010 Winter Olympics Games. The union asked for a 24-month deal that would see both sides at the bargaining table again before the Olympics.

Mayor Sam Sullivan said the last offer from the city was exactly the last offer, and the city isn't budging.
(CBC)

"I will never agree to any kind of contract that will allow the city to be shut down in the middle of Olympic and Paralympic games," Sullivan said late Friday afternoon.

Jackson said the union would accept the offered raise, as long as Vancouver matches Port Moody's incentive program, adding the equivalent of another eight per cent over four years.

But Sullivan said a four-year contract is also unacceptable because it would run out during a municipal election.

Meanwhile, the city produced a list of priority services, some essential and some non-essential, and management will work to maintain:

• Police and fire services.
• Water, sewer and street work emergency service.
• Adequate staffing of essential social services, including city-operated residences, lodges, the Gathering Place and Carnegie Centre.
• Services for the Aug. 5 Pride Parade and downtown fireworks.
• Stanley Park staffing adequate to keep it open.
• Street use permitting.
• Revenue services and grant payments.
• Operation of the Playhouse Theatre.
• Parking enforcement and collections.

The city has also provided a number of suggestions to residents for dealing with their garbage until collection resumes:

• Garbage should be reduced, reused or recycled as much as possible.
• Recyclable materials such as paper, cans, bottles and plastic containers should be separated and stored for later pickup.
• Cans, bottles and containers should be rinsed clean and kept separate from newspapers and other types of recyclable paper. Cans should be crushed to minimize their size.
• Dry garbage should be double-bagged and stored in a cool, dry place such as a basement or garage.
• Once residential garbage carts are full, wet garbage such as kitchen waste should be placed in a rodent-resistant container and store in a cool place, if possible.
• Residents with backyard composters should use them to dispose of fruit and vegetable waste.
• Once residential yard trimmings carts are full, set aside and cover leaves and other yard trimmings to keep them from getting wet, which will make it easier to transfer the waste to yard trimmings carts when collection resumes.
• Reduce the amount of leaves and grass clippings requiring collection by adding them to backyard composters and by setting lawn mowers to mulch.