Fight For $15 is now Justice4Workers – here’s why
The fight for a decent wage is just beginning. That’s why Fight For $15 is now Justice4Workers, a new movement centered on ensuring that every worker has decent work and wages. We want to ensure that all workers are given respect and dignity on the job.
“This shift in messaging and name came after an extensive process in interviewing and surveying low-waged and precariously employed workers as part of the Workers Action Centre and Fight for $15 and Fairness and network,” said Scott Florence, Executive Director of the Sudbury Workers Education & Advocacy Centre (SWEAC).
The new movement will expand on Fight For $15’s original vision by shifting towards an emphasis on addressing racism, harassment and discrimination in the workplace, and to get permanent universal sick days in Ontario.
Justice4Workers will also be demanding a $20 minimum wage in Ontario. According to the Ontario Living Wage Network, all regions have a living age of over $15 dollars an hour, with Sudbury hovering at $16.98/hour and Toronto at $22.08/hour. Increasing the minimum wage to $20/hour will ensure that Ontario’s minimum wage is in line with a living wage.
Minimum wage increases have always been a contentious issue in Ontario. The first wage rate that was set in Ontario was 1963 at 85 cents for women and $1 for males.
After this announcement was made by the Ontario Government, business owners feared that staffing reductions would ensue, costs would be passed on to consumers and that the “staple” 10 cent coffee would be put in jeopardy.
We know now through economic empirical research, that there is no negative effect on employment as wages rise. This is despite economic theories that say otherwise.
Since that time, work has also changed drastically. Employers are increasingly getting away with loopholes that allow wrongful dismissal and the misclassification of gig workers.
Justice4Workers is trying to close these loopholes. Justice4Workers is demanding that companies like Uber stop classifying their workers as independent contractors, and demanding that companies be fully responsible for wages, working conditions and collective bargaining, when they use temp agencies, franchises and/or subcontractors.
Get involved in the Justice4Workers by joining the Sudbury Workers Centre Justice4Workers committee, and signing up by click
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