Ottawa childcare centre fires early childhood educator in attempt to undermine union drive by workers

OTTAWA, Ontario--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Instead of teaching and caring for children - as she has done for two decades - early childhood educator Amanda Quance is currently out of work. She was fired from Charlotte Birchard Centres of Early Learning (CBCEL), an Ottawa childcare centre, after trying to organize her coworkers to build their power as part of a union.

Last fall, Quance started having conversations with co-workers about challenges they face as childcare workers, and how forming a union could help address them. Workers at CBCEL’s are experiencing the same province-wide childcare crisis that all childcare centres are facing: not enough ECEs, poverty level wages, and burnt-out workers.

“These workers want to assert some control over their workplaces and their lives. This transparent union busting tactic is exactly why these workers need the protection of a collective agreement,” said Athina Basiliadis, a unionized childcare worker at another day care centre in Ottawa, and a member of CUPE’s childcare committee. “The $10-a-day childcare program has fundamentally changed the childcare landscape for families, but it’s created an urgent crisis among workers who aren’t earning a fair wage and operators who are running deficits. Unions give workers the vehicle they need to advocate for the jobs, workplaces, and compensation we need and deserve.”

The unionization push had made strong inroads among parents, as fair treatment of workers goes hand-in-hand with high quality childcare. Quance was one of its most vocal leaders, and in response to her firing, hundreds of parents, childcare workers, and allies signed an online petition demanding she be reinstated and dozens joined a solidarity picket outside of the Westboro site.

CUPE – which represents over 5,500 childcare workers across Ontario – has welcomed hundreds of childcare workers in recent months, as workers assert agency amidst the financial uncertainty in their sector. In December, more than 300 childcare workers at the Learning Enrichment Foundation joined CUPE after their pay was unilaterally cut. Over 125 workers across 17 Good Beginnings daycare sites in Woodstock joined CUPE in February. Most recently, another 125 childcare workers across four Toronto Day Care Connection centres joined CUPE in April.

“Unions can be a constructive force. We embraced it when our workers started to talk about organizing, and we are a better workplace for it,” said Alana Powell, executive director of the Association of Early Childhood Educators Ontario (AECEO), which joined CUPE in 2023. “When workers have a voice, they bring their creativity and passion to improve the workplace.”

CUPE is pursuing all legal options to have Quance reinstated while the organizing drive at CBCEL moves forward.

JM:od/COPE491