City, inside workers' union extend talks to midnight Monday

Negotiations between Toronto's inside workers and the city have been extendedfor another 24 hours.

CUPELocal 79, which represents Toronto's23,000 inside workers, will continue negotiating with the city until Monday at 12:01 a.m.

"The good news is we're talking,"Local 79 Tim McGuire told reporters, adding the union is hoping the city will meet them "halfway."

This is the second timethe deadline has been extended by 24 hours,and McGuire hinted it could happen again.

"Even if it has to go beyond 12:01 again, we'll continue to talk," McGuire said.

Members of Local 79 work in Toronto's community centres, arenasand many of its municipal offices.The services provided by Local 79workers are unaffected during the negotiations, and will remain unaffected if the deadline is passed.

Earlier Friday, Maguire said,"I'm not discouraged because Iknow that Toronto residents know it's okay to bargain to protect their jobs We'll continue to talk. We're not focusing on service disruption, we're focusing on negotiating."

The city struck a tentative agreement with about 5,400 outside workers represented by CUPE 416 after negotiating through the wee hours of Friday morning, shortly after that local's strike deadline had passed.