Latest news with #JobCuts
CTV News
10-07-2025
- Business
- CTV News
Windsor eliminates 38 seasonal, part-time workers
Job cuts have been made at the City of Windsor. Speaking on AM800's Mornings with Mike and Meg, CUPE Local 82 President Rob Kolody said 38 seasonal, part-time workers were let go effective last week. He said during recent contract talks with the city, the union asked for job protection language. Kolody said the union wanted language where if the city decided to eliminate full-time jobs, seasonal workers could no longer continue working. He said a memorandum of agreement was not reached that governs the seasonal workers. Kolody said he doesn't understand the cuts. 'Ultimately right now there's no seasonal that are here,' said Kolody. 'The language that we were asking for is simple, if down the road council decided to eliminate full-time jobs, they would have to consider the fact that seasonal can't continue to work here.' He said the local has already dealt with full-time cuts. 'We lost nine full-time jobs in the parks area in the last round of budget, and it was becoming very clear to us that there were further cuts coming down the road when they said we can't agree to it,' he said. 'So, they must have known there was more cuts coming down the road.' Kolody feels residents are already seeing the impacts of the cuts. 'The facilities are just not as clean as they were,' said Kolody. 'People are paying money to rent the facilities. I had a caretaker yesterday asking me, I've been given a task for the weekend on a particular day and there's no way possible that I can get this done, what happens to me. Now they're in fear that they can potentially be disciplined and obviously that's not the case.' He said as it stands right now, the cuts are a done deal. 'We also have the outdoor arenas this group works in,' he said. 'So, with a new outdoor arena set to open this year, I don't know what the impacts are of that and who's going to run them.' Kolody believes more cuts are cutting. 'Something has to give because we can't have eight people maintaining the community centres, the outdoor arenas, and the indoor arenas in the winter time, it just can't continue,' says Kolody. 'So likely they're going to turn to contracting out and again makes no sense to me because we're already talking about people making just over $19 a hour.' Staff members that were let go included caretakers that worked in community centres and arenas. Kolody said the workers were making $19.50 an hour. In a statement to AM800 News, the city said, 'As this matter pertains to human resources, the City is unable to provide comment in accordance with our established policies and procedures. We appreciate your understanding.' - Written by Rob Hindi/AM800 News.
Irish Times
10-07-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
‘We're low hanging fruit': Adult educators protest potential layoffs amid budget restraints in sector
'Adult educators are being told that they have no jobs to go to in September. It's happening across the country. There are possibly hundreds of workers affected. They're hardworking, dedicated teachers,' James O'Keefe says. He was speaking outside Leinster House on Wednesday in protest of what he described as the 'scandalous' treatment of workers in Education and Training Boards (ETBs) who teach adults re-entering education, many of whom 'would have been failed the first time round by the education system,' Mr O'Keefe says. He said many teachers in the sector are on precarious fixed-term contracts that they 'had no choice but to take'. Adult educators 'are entitled to a contract of indefinite duration after four years of work', he said, meaning those with less than that now face unemployment after the summer break. He said teachers with up to three years experience were told via phone call 'they have no jobs to go to in September'. READ MORE 'Because they're on fixed-term contracts still, legally, there isn't an issue with this. No employment law has been breached, but where's the justice for these people? It's atrocious,' Mr O'Keefe said. Adult Education Teachers, who are facing job losses in September, have protested outside Leinster House. Video: Bryan O'Brien He said widespread underfunding of the sector as the reason for these job cuts, which have been initiated by ETBs across the country. He attributes blame to Minister for Further and Higher Education James Lawless as 'he's the minister responsible for allocating funding to the funding body Solas', the State agency that oversees further education and training facilities. 'They're panicking all of a sudden, 'how do we make up these gaps in our budgets? Well, they're the low-hanging fruit, let's get rid of them',' he said. 'It's incredibly disrespectful and it's causing so much stress and uncertainty for so many people'. Mr O'Keeffe says the students they teach are 'often from disadvantaged communities, so they're looking to improve their employment prospects, they're looking to gain access to further and higher education. Often, we're assisting them to navigate their way a bit more easily through, what's often from them, a hostile society'. Adult education teachers protesting on Wednesday. Photograph: Bryan O'Brien Finn Mac Aodháin has worked as an adult educator in Co Donegal for three years, delivering modules in literacy, communications, and the Irish language. He said his students are often people 'who have escaped the net, so to speak, or had a very bad experience with education'. He said many of his students are also refugees arriving from war-torn countries. 'Despite having similar, or actually in many cases the same, qualifications as postsecondary teachers,' Mr Mac Aodháin said his profession is not valued as such, and is often described as 'a non-teaching role' in internal communications in his place of employment. He does not know if he has a job in September because 'we're laid off during the break periods', he said. 'Of course it's having a mental health toll on me. I have a young family ... All this uncertainty, it's not a great state of affairs at all. It's a pitiful situation'.
