Update: June 1, 2020
The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) has reached a tentative agreement with the Board’s 17,700 education workers who are represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 4400. Read more.
Update: October 6, 2019
A tentative agreement has been reached between CUPE, the Government of Ontario and the Council of Trustees Associations. All TDSB schools will be open to students and staff on Monday, October 7, 2019. All child care, both TDSB-operated extended day programs and third-party licensed child care operators, will be open. Permits, continuing education classes, and scheduled meetings will continue as normal.
Update: October 3, 2019
CUPE announced that its members will take further job action on Monday, October 7, 2019, if a new collective agreement is not reached through negotiations with the province and the Council of Trustees Associations. The new job action will be a full withdrawal of services, which is otherwise known as a strike or a walk-out. Over 18,000 employees will not be at work for the duration of the strike, which is almost half of the Toronto District School Board’s employees. Most of these employees work in schools.
If this job action commences as scheduled, the Board will close all schools for all students on Monday, October 7, 2019 and for the duration of the job action. While we understand that this is a challenging time, parents will be required to make alternate arrangements for their children. This is not a decision that we made lightly and we have explored every possible contingency plan to keep schools open. Student supervision and safety are our top priorities and without the important services of these school-based employees, we cannot guarantee that our learning environments will remain safe and clean for all students.
For more information, including a list of impacted programs and services, read the full update.
Update: October 2, 2019
CUPE announced today that it has given five days' notice ahead of a walkout that is scheduled to begin on Monday, October 7. CUPE is requesting that its negotiations with the Council of Trustees Associations and the Ontario government recommence on Friday to avoid this escalation. The TDSB remains hopeful that a new contract can be negotiated. More information will be posted shortly.
Update: September 30, 2019
On Sunday it was announced that negotiations among the Council of Trustees Associations (who represent Ontario school boards in provincial contract negotiations), the Ontario government and CUPE have ended for now without reaching a collective agreement. CUPE will commence job action on Monday, September 30. For more information, read the OPSBA news release: Update regarding negotiations with CUPE.
Update: September 25, 2019
The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) has announced that its members will begin a job action, sometimes referred to as work-to-rule, on Monday, September 30. At the TDSB, CUPE represents school support staff, such as caretakers, lunchroom supervisors, office/clerical staff and Designated Early Childhood Educators. See below for the full list of CUPE job classifications at the TDSB.
The job action announced by CUPE involves the partial withdrawal of services, including (but not limited to):
- Not sweeping hallways, office areas and gymnasiums
- Not doing school compost or recycling programs
- Not cutting grass, shovelling or completing other ground maintenance duties
- Not collecting or accepting money for school-related initiatives and fundraising
Read the full list of job actions and the work-to-rule instructions by job classification for more information.
Schools will remain open during this work-to-rule and instructional programs will continue to run. We will continue to update parents/guardians and staff with new information as soon as it becomes available. For ongoing updates, please continue to check this page and follow @tdsb on Twitter.
Update: September 19, 2019
Members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) which represents educational workers at Ontario school boards (including CUPE 4400 at the TDSB) has voted in favour of taking job action which could happen as early as September 30.
Job action could range from a work-to-rule to a full withdrawal of service. If job action takes place, it can happen at one or more school boards at the same time or at different times. It is important to note that a strike vote does not necessarily mean that job action will be taken. The union continues to bargain at the central negotiations table. The TDSB is hopeful that a new contract can be negotiated with all school board employee groups.
CUPE 4400 at the TDSB represents the following types of employees:
- Literacy Basic Skills Instructors
- English as a Second Language/LINC Instructors
- International Language Instructors
- Concurrent Program Instructors
- Black Cultural Program Instructors
- Seniors’ Day-time Instructors
- Native Language Instructors and
- Parenting Workers
- Office, Clerical and Technical–day & night
- Designated Early Childhood Educators
- Educational Assistants, SNAs
- Lunchroom Supervisors
- Aquatic staff
- Food Services staff
- Itinerant Music Instructors
- Night school office, clerical and technical
- School Based Safety Monitors
- Alternative Program Representatives
- Job Coaches
- LBS/ESL Outreach Workers
- Classroom Co-coordinators and Program Facilitators
- Call Centre
- Caretaking
- Fleet Services
- Security
- Stock-keeping
- Warehousing
- Bus Drivers