Goodwill workers blast charity's CEO over closures

David Williams could have stayed on employment insurance. He could have gone on disability for the scoliosis he’s suffered since age 12. In his own words, he could have just stayed home and watched TV.

Williams figures those options would probably have netted him more money than 19 years at Goodwill. But just as the 80-year-old charity originally intended, work provided him with so much more: purpose, identity, passion.

“We’re a family,” he said of his colleagues at Goodwill Scarborough.

That is where dozens of employees gathered Wednesday calling for Goodwill Industries Toronto CEO Keiko Nakamura to resign, after the abrupt closure of 16 Toronto-area stores and 10 donation centres left more than 430 workers stranded.

Among them: Len Trumble, who after 26 years with the company is making just $13.90 an hour; Raymond Chalmers, a 30-year Goodwill veteran who at 66, doesn’t know how he’ll find work again; Raphelia Debique, whose position at the charity supports her six family members living in a three-bedroom apartment.

“It’s the air I breathe,” Debique said of her job.

Tears, frustration and outright anger infused Wednesday’s news conference, where employees said they’ve received almost no information from the company after an apparent “fiscal crisis” shut down their workplace. Friday is pay day, but it will not be honoured.

“Despite our best efforts, employees will not be paid on Friday as part of the regular pay cycle,” an emailed statement from Nakamura said. “However, Goodwill will be in a position to update all employees about the date of payroll deposits and the issuance of records of employments on Monday January 25, 2016

“I’ve got members who are not going to eat tonight,” said James Nickle, a union steward and truck driver for the organization. “I’ve got one member that’s got $6 to her name. How many of my membership are going to be out on the street tonight, tomorrow, Friday when they don’t have a pay cheque?”

The Canadian Airport Workers Union (CAWU), which represents the Goodwill workers, said it has put Nakamura in touch with a new investor interested in rescuing the charity, but there is no word on whether the company will cooperate.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Training Colleges and Universities, which provides funding to Goodwill for employment services, told the Star it was developing a strategy to support all laid off workers at the charity. The organization’s mission includes hiring people who would otherwise struggle to find employment.

Although the organization’s board has resigned, Nakamura — who was fired from her role as head of Toronto Community Housing after a spending scandal in 2011 — said Monday she would stay on as its head. Workers are now demanding to know why Nakamura is still on the job and they are not.

“She’s like, ‘we don’t have donations to sell and we have a cash flow crisis.’ I’m like, really? We get everything for free,” said Shane Clarke, who has worked at the company as a trucker for 16 years.

“This is cruel what she’s done. Very cruel what she’s done,” added Debique. “She’s sleeping tonight, she’s warm, she’s going to eat and she’s not thinking about us. We have nothing. Because we’re the people with the barriers that they vowed to hire. To help.”

Since the company has not officially closed down or declared bankruptcy, there is no word on severance or termination pay. Workers have not received a record of employment, which would allow them to claim employment insurance.

“Employees haven't been told they're terminated, they haven't been told they're laid off, permanently or temporarily. They haven’t been told anything,” CAWU lawyer Dennis Ellickson told the Star.

Under the collective bargaining agreement between the union and Goodwill Industries of Toronto, Eastern, Central and Northern Ontario, the company is required to give employees 30 to 60 days’ notice before closing any stores, and that did not happen, Ellickson said.

Moe Rutherford, the union’s business agent, added Wednesday that union had asked for “transparency” from the company and it had not complied. It is also unclear what will happen to the donations that continue to pile up outside the charity’s shuttered doors.

For Clarke, amid all the confusion, there is just one question that really matters.

“I have a little son. I have a family I’ve got to support. And if I don’t have money in the bank, how do I do that?”

Original Article
Source: thestar.com/
Author:  Sara Mojtehedzadeh, Oliver Sachgau