Support Community Housing Workers

More than 700 community housing workers at the Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) are mobilizing to enhance safety, improve quality, and ensure affordability for 110,000 Torontonians who rely on social housing.

The waitlist for community housing currently exceeds 79,000 people and the city’s housing crisis has reached its peak during the COVID-19 pandemic. Without TCHC’s workers, tenants wouldn’t have access to lifesaving supports including wellness checks and referrals to critical health and social services.

TCHC is attempting to erode job security, seniority rights, parental and maternity leave benefits, and refuses to consider vital health and safety proposals to keep workers safe.

We call on the board of the TCHC to:

• Work with the union to protect and enhance community housing;
• Bargain a fair collective agreement that respects vital, frontline community housing workers.

We need the management and board of TCHC to care for workers as diligently as CUPE members care for the residents in community housing.

Sign and share this letter to send a message to TCHC’s Board of Directors, asking that they bargain a fair collective agreement that protects and enhances community housing, so that all residents have the supports they need to live and thrive in our city.

To TCHC’s Board of Directors,

As a resident of Ontario with a vested interest in the health, safety, and wellbeing of those who rely on social and community housing, I am disappointed in your refusal to guide TCHC toward robust, supportive programs and the fair treatment of dedicated workers who provide them.

As you know, CUPE Local 79, representing more than 700 members at TCHC, have been in collective agreement negotiations since September 2020. The local’s expressed goal at the bargaining table is to enhance safety, improve quality, and ensure affordability for 110,000 Torontonians who rely on social housing.

Over the years, Toronto’s housing crisis has become even more apparent. As encampments have been erected all over the city, shelters continuously turn people away due to capacity issues. As the waitlist for community housing exceeds 79,000 people, the need for a stabilized community housing workforce has never been more urgent.

Without TCHC’s workers, tenants wouldn’t have access to lifesaving supports including wellness checks and referrals to critical health and social services. Workers are rightfully concerned and are willing to do whatever it takes to safeguard and improve social housing in our city. The local began negotiations with TCHC in September 2020 and will be in a legal strike position effective Sunday, August 22 at 12:01 a.m.

I call on you to avert a strike at TCHC by accepting the union’s proposals to enhance working conditions for staff so that they can continue providing the supports and services that are crucially needed by our community.

Sincerely,

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