Tears and frustration for Goodwill workers

Employees call for CEO’s resignation as they look for answers and are greeted with silence and an uncertain future — and no income

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 closing of 16 Torontoarea stores and 10 donation centres left more than 430 workers stranded.

Among them is Len Trumble, who after 26 years with the company is making just $13.90 an hour.

“It’s the air I breathe.” RAPHELIA DEBIQUE HER POSITION AT THE CHARITY SUPPORTS HER SIX FAMILY MEMBERS LIVING IN A THREE-BEDROOM APARTMENT

Add to that list Raymond Chalmers, a30-year Goodwill veteran who at 66 doesn’t know how he’ll find work again, and Raphelia Debique, whose position at the charity supports her six family members living in a threebedroom 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 payday, 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,” James Nickle, a union steward and truck driver for the organization, said. “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 paycheque?”

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 co-operate.

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 the laid off workers. The organization’s mission includes hir- ing 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.

“This is cruel what she’s done. Very cruel what she’s done,” Debique said. “She’s sleeping tonight, she’s warm, she’s going to eat and she’s not thinking about us. We have nothing.”

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.

It is unclear what will happen to the donations that continue to pile up outside the charity’s shuttered doors.

For truck driver Shane Clarke, amid all the confusion, just one question 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?” With files from David Bateman