After eight months on the picket line, the employees of Victoria Day Care have been told that their jobs are now gone and the facility is closing.
If Victoria Day Care (Canadas oldest day care centre) closes, it will be a sad and ominous day for Torontonians. We cannot let this happen. Heres why:
- 83 subsidized day care spaces will be gone in the city core
- The fate of municipal day cares is now questionable, given the Citys lack of commitment to this historic facility
- An agency which received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the City has been allowed to abandon its obligations to residents of downtown Toronto, while thumbing its nose at its own employees
- Downtown Toronto will lose a licensed day care facility that has provided quality child care for almost a century!
The 25 unionized employees of Victoria Day Care (member of CUPE Local 2563) are exploring every legal avenue to prevent this child care centre form closing.
Along with their union, they will continue the fight to bring accountability and fairness to agencies that receive significant funding from the City of Toronto. We will be working with activists in the child care community to put a Save Victoria plan in place.
This strike, which began on June 29, must not be in vain. Nothing short of the future of quality, affordable child care is at stake.