VANCOUVER - While garbage trucks made their rounds for the first time in three months, Vancouver's just-ended civic strike has put pressure on the city to schedule crews for road, water and sewer work before the Winter Olympics in 2010.
Unionized outside workers agreed to a new contract late Sunday, joining their inside counterparts who settled last week.
City spokesman Jerry Dobrovolny said Monday that areas such as Cambie Street around the unfinished Canada Line rapid-transit project have to be rebuilt soon because the city doesn't want construction going on during the Games.
Dobrovolny said several other projects that aren't related to the Olympics already had tight deadlines before the 88-day strike and now scheduling them will be even tougher.
Managers who handle contracts on such massive projects have been busy collecting garbage on streets and in parks while most residents stockpiled their trash.
About 2,000 members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 1004, including garbage collectors and park employees, went back to work Monday morning after voting overwhelmingly in favour of a tentative deal.
"It's very exciting," said east Vancouver resident Maggie Milne-Martins, as she watched her garbage being hauled away for the first time in three months.
She said her family has been composting but had to stockpile diapers for three months and keep the bags in their backyard.
"That's where the children play so we haven't played out in the backyard very much."
Milne-Martins added that her family didn't put their garbage in the alley as usual because, like elsewhere in the city, it would have become a dump with drive-by garbage tossers using it as a drop-off zone for their trash.
"The only smelliness was the nappies but we haven't had the heat that would make the stench," she said. "We're just happy that it's gone."
Milne-Martins said it's been interesting to note that some of her neighbours don't seem to have much garbage accumulated after the strike.
"It's a bit spooky, actually, because it's like (the strike) wasn't really happening."
Susan Mundick, general manager of parks and recreation, said people have been dumping their household garbage at parks, where it's been picked up by managers and other exempt staff during the labour dispute.
Some took to hauling their garbage to suburban transfer stations and others had friends in neighbouring municipalities who could add bags to their weekly pickups.
Mundick said golf courses opened early Monday morning and that maintenance of sports fields would be undertaken before sports permits are issued, likely within a week.
Community centres were welcoming the public back this week with discounted admission rates.
Tom Timm, general manager of engineering for the city, said crews would be picking up a garbage cart and yard waste, plus six extra bags of trash but the recycling would be left for about two weeks.
The city had about three times the usual number of trucks on the streets early Monday, he said.
"We expect that we'll be fully caught up and back to regular service with regular amount of resources if not this week, then by the end of next week," said Timm.
It's not known how many city workers who collect garbage and work in the parks left for other jobs during the lengthy strike.
Of about 150 to 170 garbage collectors, 30 didn't show up for work Monday, Timm said, adding the new contract gives workers 14 days to return to their jobs.
Along with a 17.5 per cent wage hike over five years, Local 1004 members also received a $1,000 signing bonus, an improved benefits package and the establishment of a joint committee to address the assignment of overtime.
Timm said there's nothing to prevent workers from taking the signing bonus and then leaving their jobs for good.
"We're actually quite optimistic that people will stay with the city," he said. "There's a lot of people in (Local) 1004 who've got long-term investment in being city employees; they've got pensionable service to consider."
Inside city workers, including those employed at city hall and community centres, accepted a new contract last week.
But about 800 librarians have been on the picket line since July. They had an informal meeting with city representatives on Monday afternoon.
