 | |
| Predecessor | Fight for $15 and Fairness |
|---|---|
| Founded at | Toronto, Canada |
| Website | https://www.justice4workers.org/ |
Justice for Workers: Decent Work for All (previously Fight for $15 and Fairness) is a Canadian campaign and movement focused on the rights and remuneration of low-wage workers.
The Fight for $15 and Fairness campaign was launched in the spring of 2015, following the Fight for $15 campaign launch in the US in 2012. [1] Initially the campaign focused on the unmet needs of low-wage workers in precarious employment in Ontario. [1] In April 2015, the campaign organized Ontario-wide demonstrations. [2]
After the passing of the Making Ontario Open for Business Act, 2018 reduced the Ontario Government's commitment to minimum wage, protesting continued on a smaller scale. [3]
During 2020 and 2021, the campaign's activates expanded into Nova Scotia [4] and Newfoundland and Labrador. [5]
The "Justice for Workers" campaign was launched on May 1, 2021, [6] as the next phase of the Ontario-wide campaign for decent work. The campaign aims to improve the working conditions of low-wage and precarious workers across Ontario. The campaign was created in response to the harsh realities of working conditions exposed by the pandemic. To achieve this, the campaign demands a $20-per-hour minimum wage, 10 permanent paid sick days, equal pay for equal work, permanent resident status for all and much more. [7]
The campaign has "terrified" Restaurant Brands International, the owners of Tim Hortons, [8] and the campaign was credited with the inclusion of a $15 federal minimum wage in the 2021 Canadian federal budget. [9]
Tim Hortons Inc., commonly nicknamed Tim's or Timmie's, is a Canadian multinational coffeehouse and restaurant chain. Based in Toronto, Tim Hortons serves coffee, donuts, sandwiches, and other fast-food items. It is Canada's largest quick-service restaurant chain, with 5,352 restaurants in 15 countries, as of June 30, 2022.
A living wage is defined as the minimum income necessary for a worker to meet their basic needs. This is not the same as a subsistence wage, which refers to a biological minimum, or a solidarity wage, which refers to a minimum wage tracking labor productivity. Needs are defined to include food, housing, and other essential needs such as clothing. The goal of a living wage is to allow a worker to afford a basic but decent standard of living through employment without government subsidies. Due to the flexible nature of the term "needs", there is not one universally accepted measure of what a living wage is and as such it varies by location and household type. A related concept is that of a family wage – one sufficient to not only support oneself, but also to raise a family.
Heather Dorothy Stefanson is a Canadian politician who has been serving as the 24th premier of Manitoba since November 2, 2021, the first woman in the province's history to hold that role.
Kathleen O'Day Wynne is a Canadian former politician who served as the 25th premier of Ontario and leader of the Ontario Liberal Party from 2013 to 2018. She was member of provincial parliament (MPP) for Don Valley West from 2003 to 2022. Wynne is the first female premier of Ontario and the first openly gay premier in Canada.
Under the Constitution of Canada, the responsibility for enacting and enforcing labour laws, including the minimum wage, rests primarily with the ten Provinces of Canada. The three Territories of Canada have a similar power, delegated to them by federal legislation. Some provinces allow lower wages to be paid to liquor servers and other gratuity earners or to inexperienced employees.
Decent work is employment that "respects the fundamental rights of the human person as well as the rights of workers in terms of conditions of work safety and remuneration. ... respect for the physical and mental integrity of the worker in the exercise of his/her employment."
Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ) was a nonprofit and nonpartisan interfaith advocacy network comprising more than 60 worker centers and faith and labor organizations that advanced the rights of working people through grassroots, worker-led campaigns and engagement with diverse faith communities and labor allies. IWJ affiliates took action to shape policy at the local, state and national levels.
In the United States, the minimum wage is set by U.S. labor law and a range of state and local laws. The first federal minimum wage was instituted in the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933, signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, but later found to be unconstitutional. In 1938, the Fair Labor Standards Act established it at $0.25 an hour. Its purchasing power peaked in 1968, at $1.60 In 2009, it was increased to $7.25 per hour, and has not been increased since.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) is a non-profit business organization representing the interests and concerns of over 110,000 Canadian owners of small and mid-size enterprises (SMEs) to all three levels of government. Their areas of concerns include tax policy, labour policies and regulatory policy. The CFIB has lobbied to restrict aspects of the social safety net, including minimum wages, employment insurance, and personal leave for employees. The organization's head office is located in Toronto and there is a regional office located in each province. There is also a national office located in Ottawa.
Douglas Robert Ford Jr. is a Canadian politician and businessman who has served as the 26th and current premier of Ontario since June 2018 and leader of the Progressive Conservative (PC) Party since March 2018. He represents the Toronto riding of Etobicoke North in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.
Monte Gary McNaughton is a Canadian politician who has served as the minister of labour, immigration, training and skills development in Ontario since June 20, 2019. A Progressive Conservative (PC), McNaughton has sat as a member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) and has represented the riding Lambton—Kent—Middlesex in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario since the 2011 provincial election. McNaughton first joined the provincial Cabinet in 2018 as the minister of infrastructure.
Scott Moe is a Canadian politician serving as the 15th and current premier of Saskatchewan since February 2, 2018. He is a member of the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan for the riding of Rosthern-Shellbrook, first elected in 2011. He served in the Saskatchewan Party cabinet from 2014 to 2017 under the premiership of Brad Wall, twice as minister of environment and also as minister of advanced education. In January 2018 he was chosen to succeed Wall as leader of the Saskatchewan Party. He led the Saskatchewan Party to a fourth consecutive majority mandate in the 2020 provincial election.
The Fight for $15 is an American political movement advocating for the minimum wage to be raised to USD$15 per hour. The federal minimum wage was last set at $7.25 per hour in 2009. The movement has involved strikes by child care, home healthcare, airport, gas station, convenience store, and fast food workers for increased wages and the right to form a labor union. The "Fight for $15" movement started in 2012, in response to workers' inability to cover their costs on such a low salary, as well as the stressful work conditions of many of the service jobs which pay the minimum wage.
Carlos Ramirez-Rosa is an American politician. He has served as the Alderperson for Chicago's 35th Ward since May 18, 2015. He is Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson's Floor Leader, and chair of the Chicago City Council's Committee on Zoning, Landmarks, and Building Standards.
United Voices of the World (UVW) is an independent grassroots trade union, established in London in 2014.
Initiative 77 was a voter-approved ballot initiative in Washington, D.C., to phase out the special minimum wage for tipped employees as part of the national Fight for $15 campaign. In the June 2018 primary election, D.C. voters approved Initiative 77 by a margin of 56% to 44%; however, the D.C. Council repealed the initiative in October before it could enter into force. In 2022, a nearly identical Initiative 82 was approved for the November 8, 2022 election.
The Protecting a Sustainable Public Sector for Future Generations Act is a law in the province of Ontario limiting public sector salary increases to one per cent for each of the next three years. After a legal challenge from unions, it was struck down as unconstitutional in November 2022 by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. Premier Doug Ford, whose Progressive Conservative government passed the bill, said that the decision would be appealed.
The Making Ontario Open for Business Act is a law in the province of Ontario that froze the minimum wage in the province and removing a number of protections of workers' rights.
Ritika Goel is a Toronto-based Canadian writer, activist, professor, and family doctor known for public advocacy on social justice matters.
Initiative 82 was a voter-approved ballot initiative in Washington, D.C., to phase out the special minimum wage for tipped employees as part of the national Fight for $15 campaign. In the November 2022 general election, D.C. voters approved Initiative 82 by a margin of 74% to 26%, though about 12% of all participating voters did not vote on the initiative. It was nearly identical to Initiative 77, a ballot measure in the 2018 primary election that was approved by D.C. voters but later overturned by the D.C. Council before it could enter into force.