Look what we accomplished together in 2024!

With the federal cabinet shake-up, and speculation on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s future, rumours are flying that we may be in for a federal election much sooner than most of us ever imagined! This is on top of the widely-held suspicion that Ontario Premier Doug Ford will be announcing his own snap election in early 2025. The possibility of two elections next year means we have a lot of work ahead of us.

Many politicians are going to try to pit us against each other in order to divert our anger away from their failure to deliver good jobs, decent incomes, safe and affordable housing, healthcare, accessible education, and high-quality child care. They want us to blame newcomers, international students, public sector workers, trans people, and any other group of people they think they can pick on.

Even with the recent news that inflation has slowed to less than 2 per cent, it still means already high prices continue to rise. Shockingly, the cost of rent and groceries are still increasing at a much faster rate than what is captured in the latest inflation number.

Higher prices, fewer jobs, and wages that don’t keep up with housing and food costs are caused by policies designed to protect corporate profits, at the expense of workers. Here are a few examples: 

• Higher interest rates means everyone pays more money to the banks. Higher interest rates make borrowing more expensive, which slows the economy and creates job loss. These factors make workers fearful of losing their jobs, and less confident to fight for better wages and working conditions; 

• Cuts in public, social, and cooperative housing leave investment companies and commercial landlords squeezing workers and small businesses alike with huge rent increases; 

• Chronic underfunding of education, be it elementary, secondary, or post-secondary creates staff shortages and rising fees. Allowing institutions to charge unlimited tuition fees is a recipe for exploitation and privatization; 

• Privatization of healthcare and long-term care force health workers to do more intense work for inadequate wages with fewer staff and less resources. The result is worse patient care and unnecessary backlogs; 

• Inadequate support for injured workers and continued billion-dollar handouts to corporations means too many workers' claims are denied, while others are cut off benefits before they have recovered or secured a job.

But despite these policies, 2024 has been a big year for workers fighting back and making gains, whether it's health and long-term care workers, warehouse workers, transit workers, or LCBO workers. The Justice for Workers movement is all about building the kind of active solidarity that can help us win now and in the future. Your participation in this work has been inspirational.

Justice for Workers is your movement. It’s a multi-racial network of fighters that brings together union and non-union workers, so you, your friends and your co-workers will be stronger and better prepared to take on bad bosses and politicians who give handouts to big corporations. 

That’s why we are asking you to support Justice for Workers financially.

Thanks to your support, we’ll be able to:

• Equip organizers with the tools they need to take action,
• Host workshops to educate and mobilize communities, and
• Build solidarity with workers fighting for decent work. 

Can we count on you to  make an contribution to help us prepare for the challenges ahead?

2024 - What a year!

Here’s just a brief sample of the organizing you made possible: 

• Throughout 2024, we have stood shoulder to shoulder with truck drivers, who are misclassified as independent contractors and who are denied the basic protections of employment standards, and all too often forced to fight against wage theft and bad bosses who refuse to pay them.

• We built a strong movement to support equal rights for migrant workers, understanding that our strength comes from joining forces to fight for decent work and strong public services.

• In the spring, we stood with LCBO workers who were organizing to protect good jobs in local communities, and to protect the LCBO as a public revenue stream to support many other public services we depend on. And when LCBO workers were forced to take job action in July, we walked the lines with them in their first-ever strike.

• On April 1, we celebrated the second anniversary of our winning a much higher federal minimum wage that is adjusted annually to keep up with inflation (as measured by the federal Consumer Price Index, CPI). At $17.30, only the Yukon, Nunavut, and British Columbia have higher minimum wage rates. (And while we celebrate our wins, we renew our commitment to keep fighting for at least $20 an hour for every worker.)

• Throughout April, we organized solidarity for workers at the Art Gallery of Ontario who fought back against increased precarity–and won. We also stood on the picket line with Regent Park Community Health Care workers, and supported Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA) members in long-term care, fighting for better working conditions and better patient care.

• In May, we launched a series of workshops to help us understand where the cost-of-living crisis came from, and why migrants, international students, and public services are NOT to blame. We delivered this workshop in seven different communities in Ontario.

• We also organized with transit workers in Toronto and in Guelph, to support their demands for better staffing and better public transit. We know that Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) members are essential to a strong public and reliable transportation system that workers can depend on. In both cases, these ATU members won their fight for better staffing and better public transit.

• Heading into the fall, we supported South Riverdale Community Health Centre workers and organized alongside non-union restaurant workers at Sunrise Caribbean Restaurant who are bravely fighting wage theft and taking on their own bad boss.

• Throughout November and December, we have been organizing solidarity for postal workers here and across Canada. As you know, postal workers are fighting to preserve jobs against a CEO who earns half a million dollars a year. Canada Post CEO Doug Ettinger wants to privatize good jobs and turn them into the same kind of precarious, low-wage, dangerous jobs offered by Amazon. Although postal workers have just been forced back to work, their struggle is not over and the early months of 2025 will be crucial to organize solidarity, and build an even stronger fightback for the next round.

Clearly, we have done a lot in 2024!  

With all this activity, you may not be surprised to learn that we have a financial deficit for 2024, and we need your help to make ends meet. A financial contribution from you would make a big difference.

If every person in our network could donate just $10.00, we would have more than enough money to cover all the 2024 expenses AND prepare the kind of fighting fund we will need to organize during both a provincial AND federal election.

So whether it is $5 or $50 or $500, every single dollar you can contribute will be put to excellent use. And if you could make that donation every month, it would help us plan for the year ahead.

Thank you in advance for considering this request, and thank you for everything you do each and every day. Although we still have a long way to go in our fight to win decent work for everyone, we have made a big difference together. Our progress is only possible because of you. 

As we wrap up 2024, I want to wish you and yours a healthy and restful holiday season, as well as strength and solidarity for the year ahead.

May we all continue the fight together–and win–in 2025.