Dear Director Zucker and Supervisor Gupta,
Your May 11 email regarding a massive 300 + central staff cut landed like another bombshell on our members, and has caused shock, confusion, and profound concern.
The lack of any transparency or consultation before this announcement was dropped into staff inboxes at the end of the day yesterday, demonstrates a profound disrespect for the staff who make our system work.
We are already operating at bare bones staffing levels. The crisis is the $6.35 billion in provincial cuts to our schools since 2018, not an excess of caring adults.
We note that this comes on the heels of your March announcement of staff cuts to all 150 of our Model Schools Programs supporting the most marginalized schools, at a time when Toronto has the distinction of being named the child poverty capital of Canada.
Your cuts are an attack on our students, especially our most vulnerable students, and our members who daily struggle to meet the needs with less and less.
We are strongly opposed to any staff cuts that provide direct support to our students, and support to our members to meet student needs. The system requires sustainable funding for our students, and supports for our members in assisting our students.
We have asked and been advised by the Board for weeks that obtaining specific information regarding Central Staff numbers and hiring processes was impossible because the positions are tied to Core Education Grant funding.
The Core Education Grant has not yet been released and yet you have announced another massive round of so-called “right-sizing eliminations.”
We are requesting the following information immediately:
- The criteria used to make this decision
- How you have ensured commitments to equity and inclusion in the decision-making process
- The breakdown of the number of ETT, OSSTF, CUPE, and PSSP, central staff contained within the 218 eliminated central positions.
- The job categories/titles of the 218 central staff positions that you are eliminating.
- Specificity regarding the elimination of the 91 positions: the breakdown of ETT, OSSTF, CUPE, and PSSP members and where are they located/their positions
- Assurances that local and central agreement language is being respected
We are calling for an immediate meeting with you, and all the bargaining unit Presidents who represent the affected staff. And we are asserting our position again. Stop the cuts. Fund our schools based on needs.
We look forward to your response as soon as possible.
Sincerely,
Helen Victoros, President, Elementary Teachers of Toronto
Michelle Teixeira, President, Toronto Teachers’ Bargaining Unit, OSSTF D-12
John Weatherup, President, Toronto Education Workers/Local 4400
Solange Scott, President, Professional Student Services Personnel Bargaining Unit, OSSTF D-12
Marissa Gallippi, President, ETFO-Toronto Occasional Teachers Local
Linda Bartram, President, Occasional Teachers Bargaining Unit, OSSTF D-12
