Janz's pre-council labour record — EPSB trustee, opposed 2020 UCP support-staff layoffs

Original source: https://rabble.ca/education/no-warning-no-consultation-ucp-yanks-school-funding-using-covid/ Also (CUPE Alberta, later EPSB context): https://alberta.cupe.ca/2025/03/04/second-edmonton-school-trustee-quits-backs-support-staff/ Also (bio): https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/michael-janz-school-board-chair-resigns-1.3985546 Retrieved: 2026-07-04

Before council, Janz was an Edmonton Public School Board trustee for ~11 years (2010–2021), including board chair from January 2015. When the UCP government, amid COVID-19 in spring 2020, cut education funding and school boards laid off support staff — CUPE Alberta president Rory Gill estimated the layoffs could hit up to 20,000 people, roughly 10,000 of them CUPE members (educational assistants, substitute teachers, bus drivers, non-essential support staff) — Janz publicly opposed the move, warning the government would use the cuts as a pretext not to rehire and to shrink education investment.

Relevance: his pre-council record is pro-union and anti-cuts, consistent with his AUPE answers. Nothing here supports "Janz signed a letter against a union"; it points the other way. (CUPE Alberta's own 2025 coverage of Edmonton trustees remains friendly toward the pro-support-staff side.)