Bucking an Anti-Union Campaign by Their Employer, Workers at John Ross Robertson Child Centre Vote to Join CUPE

TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In the days after CUPE filed an application for certification to unionize child care workers at John Ross Robertson Child Centre (JRRCC) in Toronto’s Avenue Road and Lawrence neighbourhood, the employer circulated an anti-union memo to all workers discouraging them from voting Yes for a union.

The memo was full of half-truths and the message was clear: JRRCC did not want a union in their Centre.

Workers first started talking about a union months earlier. Unlike many unionized child care workers across Toronto, these 23 early child educators, assistants, and cooks, do not have pensions or meaningful job security. They earn less than unionized counterparts. And they only have eight sick days a year, not nearly enough to keep workers healthy considering the amount of childhood illnesses they are regularly exposed to.

Despite the employer’s attempted interference – pulled straight from a well-trodden anti-union playbook – 90 per cent of workers voted to organize, now forming part of CUPE 5213.

“Unions aren’t a threat to child care centres. We are a way for workers to advocate for themselves, which ultimately means not just better working conditions but better learning conditions too. There’s a reason so many child care workers are joining unions. There’s a workforce crisis in childcare and unions are the solution to a sector plagued by uncertainty,” said Jess Tomas, an early childhood educator, president of CUPE 2484 representing over 600 child care workers in Toronto and a childcare representative on CUPE Ontario’s Social Services Workers Coordinating Committee. “A union gives workers some control over their future. They also create the kind of workforce stability child care centres desperately need. With negotiations between the federal and provincial government on the future of publicly funded child care in our province stalled, now is the time for families, child care operators, and unions to work together to build a system that works for all.”

The workers at JRRCC are only the latest in a long line of child care workers to join CUPE in recent months. In December, over 300 child care workers at the Learning Enrichment Foundation voted overwhelmingly to join CUPE in part to fight for the wages that were unilaterally cut from them by management. Another 125 child care workers from Day Care Connection joined CUPE in April.

“I’m excited to see child care workers get more representation and more of a voice not only because they deserve better pay, the protection of WSIB, enough sick days, and more, but because families also deserve to know their child is in the care of a well-trained, well-compensated worker,” said Tomas. “I only hope that other centres won’t try and block workers but will invite us in so we can collaborate and work together to improve child care.”

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