TORONTO, ON – Ontario North East teacher Monica Rusnak has been re-elected vice-president (female) of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO). Rusnak has served as ETFO vice-president since 2017.

“Strength will be needed to dismantle the Ford government and their privatization schemes. That strength will be relied upon when we protect and enhance our rights as workers at the bargaining table, and it will be imperative as we battle the climate of austerity sure to be imposed on Ontarians in a post-pandemic era,” says Rusnak. 

Rusnak began her teaching career in 1988 with District School Board Ontario North East (formerly Timmins Board of Education) after graduating from the University of Windsor with a bachelor of education. Her teaching career was spent at Golden Avenue Public School in South Porcupine where she taught in the primary, junior and intermediate divisions (Junior Kindergarten to Grade 8).

From 2006 to 2017, Monica served her local as president, vice-president, chief negotiator, collective bargaining representative, Executive member, and chair of political action and status of women committees. She was chair and member of ETFO’s Pension Committee and was a member of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Benefits Adjudication Committee before her work began on the provincial Executive. 

Elected to the Federation’s provincial Executive in 2010, Rusnak currently serves as a vice-president of the Ontario Federation of Labour, an Ontario Teachers' Federation governor, a trustee of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation and as an ETFO Humanity Fund board member. Before becoming chair of the ETFO Benefits Advisory Committee she served as chair of the ETFO Long-Term Disability Board. 

ETFO represents 83,000 elementary public school teachers, occasional teachers and education professionals across the province. Its Building Better Schools education agenda can be viewed at BuildingBetterSchools.ca.

Media Contact: Carla Pereira, ETFO Media Relations, 416-576-9074 or cpereira@etfo.org.