Executive director, CFO and senior leader join president in exodus from turbulent teachers’ union

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This article was published 24/12/2024 (271 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The executive director of the Manitoba Teachers’ Society is the latest to join a wave of senior managers submitting resignations to the embattled union’s headquarters on Portage Avenue.

There are about 70 support and administrative employees who do everything from negotiating teacher contracts to planning professional development for the union’s 16,600 public school teachers.

Danielle Fullan Kolton — who has overseen those daily operations since 2020 — will not return to her post after an extended medical leave that began more than 13 months ago.

Fullan Kolton, as well as chief financial officer Kim Kummen and Cheryl Chuckry, a former teacher who has spent recent years in various union leadership positions, have announced they are pursuing other professional opportunities in recent weeks, the Free Press has learned.

In a memo to staff members Monday, Fullan Kolton described the last year as “deeply transformative,” citing a number of personal health challenges, including multiple surgeries.

“These experiences have profoundly impacted me and my family — emotionally and physically — testing our resilience in ways we never anticipated. This journey has led me to reevaluate my priorities and place greater emphasis on the wellbeing of myself and my loved ones,” she wrote, before signing off with her initials and internal nickname, “DFK.”

Since 2013, she has worked in various roles at MTS, including education research analyst, staff officer, department head of professional and French language services and assistant general secretary.

There have been two different interim executive directors since Fullan Kolton took a leave from her current position in November 2023; Glen Anderson was the latest to be appointed to the position indefinitely.

Meantime, union president Nathan Martindale announced Friday that he will not seek re-election when his first term is finished in the spring.

Martindale took to social media to explain the decision, which he said was made to support his family.

The elected leader said he admired Fullan Kolton, his counterpart on the non-partisan side of the union, for her “unwavering poise and grace under pressure” in a mass email about her departure.

The high-profile exits are taking place amid a third-party probe into workplace culture, harassment and morale concerns raised by employees represented by Teamsters Local Union 979.

MTS hired Richter Consulting to do a “workplace assessment” at the start of the school year.

The contract was announced about a year after Teamsters presented the damning findings of a membership survey with a roughly 65 per cent response rate.

At the time, the majority of participants said they had a negative perception of the psychological health and safety of their office, and there was a notable absence of trust and confidence in the senior management team.

Teamsters has filed at least a dozen grievances related to what a national spokesman called a “toxic work environment” at the public-sector union whose annual member fees currently total $1,228.

Fullan Kolton has not replied to requests for comment on the subject.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca