Layoffs bring protests at College Bound
Current and former staff and students of College Bound Dorchester demonstrated on Tuesday outside its headquarters to protest what they called racist layoffs and program cuts amid workers’ attempts to unionize.
At a rally that drew more than 50 people, many carrying signs that said, “Black workers matter. Recognize the union now,” and “Reinstate the eight,” Joe Tache, a former instructor and college-readiness adviser at the nonprofit, said he was among eight people — about one-third of its staff — laid off on Friday, three days after it raised $650,000 at its annual fundraiser.
CBD also is ending its English Speakers of Other
Languages program by the end of the month and transitioning students to similar programs elsewhere, said Mark Culliton, the CEO and founder of the organization, which has a $4.6 million budget funded by the city, the state and private donors.
Demonstrators accused Culliton, who is white, of raising that money by sharing the life experiences of former gang members CBD has helped to complete their high school equivalency exams and enroll in college or graduate school through one of its programs, Boston Uncornered.
“You have a white man leading an organization” in a community he’s never lived in, said Kenny Schoonmaker, a college readiness adviser at CBD. “It hurts me a lot to know we let them infiltrate … And we fell for it. They exploited us … We’re raising the money.”
Culliton ended an interview with the Herald before those accusations could be addressed. But Michelle Caldeira, the black co-founder and senior vice president of CBD, flatly rejected them.
“Mark doesn’t make decisions unilaterally,” she said. “I believe the current racial tensions are being exploited to only talk about Mark. I’m deeply offended and insulted that’s being used in that way.”
Caldeira also denied that the layoffs had any connection to workers’ attempts to unionize.
“We had been telling people we expected a significant impact from COVID-19,” she said.
But CBD will respect whatever decision the National Labor Relations Board comes to, Caldeira said.
Protesters said they want to join SEIU to avoid further layoffs and cuts to programs and to gain some transparency around CBD’s finances.
Culliton’s salary has increased from $140,000 in 2010 to about $185,000 now — enough to fund five positions, Tache said — and over the same period, the number of staff has dropped from 94 to fewer than 25.
The CEO said those numbers “seem probably about right,” but he said that he, Caldeira and other top managers have cut their own salaries before and during the coronavirus pandemic.