Dear Parents/Guardians,

This is an important update about job action being taken by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), which represents school support staff, such as caretakers, lunchroom supervisors, office/clerical staff and Designated Early Childhood Educators. For a full list of CUPE job classifications, please visit the TDSB webpage for Labour Negotiations.

CUPE is in negotiations with the Government of Ontario and public school boards to achieve a new collective agreement. At this time, the union has announced that its members will begin a job action, sometimes referred to as work-to-rule, on Monday, September 30. This means that staff who are members of CUPE will start a partial withdrawal of service on this date. The job action will affect all Ontario school boards and schools, as well as administrative offices.

It is important to note that schools will remain open during this work-to-rule and instructional programs will continue to run. During this time, principals and vice-principals will work together with staff to maintain a caring and positive school environment for students. As always, student safety and learning remain the top priorities of all TDSB staff. Our superintendents will be in daily contact with our schools during this time to assess any concerns that may arise.

On Monday, September 30, CUPE will start a partial withdrawal of services, which includes, but is 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

A full list of CUPE services that will be impacted is available online.

Employees, who are members of CUPE, provide important services to our schools and administrative offices. As the partial withdrawal of services continues, it may have a more significant impact on school activities, permits and school operations. We will continue to update parents/guardians with new information as soon as it becomes available. For on-going updates, please visit the TDSB webpage for Labour Negotiations and follow @tdsb on Twitter.

As you can imagine, principals and vice-principals will have to take on additional tasks as a result of the on-going job action and we appreciate your patience. During this time, there may be some delays when trying to contact your school office.

Dates for continued negotiations to achieve a new collective agreement have been set. We remain hopeful that negotiations between CUPE, the Government of Ontario and public school boards will soon result in a new collective agreement.