With December already here, we can see the end of 2016 — but our campaign shows little sign of slowing down! In the past few days, $15 & Fairness meetings were held in Kingston, Ottawa and Toronto, and our Decent Work Sing-Along videos are pouring in from across the province! And there’s lots of time to keep spreading $15 & Fairness cheer across our communities.

Scroll down for upcoming events, including tomorrow’s actions in Ottawa and Toronto,and read about the November 29th Day of Disruption in the US: 

December 3
TORONTO: SANTA’S HELPERS NEED A RAISE!
1:00 pm to 2:00 pm | Southeast Corner of Yonge and Dundas click here for a map
Join us to raise our voices in unison to celebrate all the workers who make our holiday season festive!  As part of the holiday action, we’ll be singing songs, handing out leaflets and candy canes and collecting signatures on postcards for MPPs. Everyone is welcome: bring along your friends, kids and co-workers.
To RSVP and share on Facebook, click here. To download the flyer, click here.

OTTAWA: CAROLLING FOR DECENT WORK
11:00 am to 1:00 pm | St. Laurent Mall click here for a map
December is a busy shopping season, making this a better time to share our message of decent work with retail workers and shoppers. The Fight for $15 & Fairness is dressing up our demands in festive cheer, music and singing – join us!
To RSVP and share on Facebook, click here.

December 9
TORONTO: STOP PRIVATIZATION OF LCBO!
5:00 pm to 7:00 pm | 595 Bay Street click here for a map
Fighting for fairness also means defending decent jobs and making sure that public services stay in public hands. Right now, the Liquor Control Board of Ontario has primary responsibility for alcohol sales and those who work there help ensure that alcohol is sold responsibly and that any revenues generated are used to support public services and decent jobs. Unfortunately, the Ontario government is preparing to give our public services to private corporations who will want to cut jobs and wages in order to maximize their own profit. All Ontarians own the LCBO and it should not be sold out from under us. On December 9, let’s support LCBO workers — members of the Ontario Public Services Employees’ Union — to say Keep the LCBO Public!
To RSVP and share on Facebook, click here.

December 10
OTTAWA: CAROLLING FOR DECENT WORK
11:00 am to 1:00 pm | Bayshore Mall click here for a map [Meet at the main mall entrance on the 5th parking level – P5, between Walmart & Hudson Bay]
Join us for a little carolling, leafleting and petitioning at the Bayshore Mall. Help us share our message of decent work with retail workers and shoppers. The Fight for $15 & Fairness is dressing up our demands in festive cheer, music and singing – come out!
To RSVP and share on Facebook, click here.

BRAMPTON & MISSISSAUGA: MAKE IT FAIR ASSEMBLY
1:00 pm to 3:00 pm | Gore Meadows Community Centre – 10150 The Gore Road, Brampton click here for a map
Join in a great training session on how to tell our stories to mobilize in our communities and for changes to our employment laws.
To RSVP and share on Facebook, click here.

TORONTO: MUSLIM COMMUNITY OUTREACH
11:00 am to 3:00 pm | REGENT PARK click here for a map

We believe that, as Muslim workers, we can play an integral part in pushing our government to make meaningful strides to improve working conditions. And raising the minimum wage to $15 is an important step toward eliminating poverty in Ontario. Help engage the Muslim community in a conversation about poverty and workers rights. Don’t know much about the issue? Never done community outreach before? No worries! We’ll spend our first hour training you to talk to poeple about the issues. To RSVP and share on Facebook, click here.

• 11:00 am to 12:00 pm: Crash course on community outreach
• 12:00 noon to 2:00 pm: Community outreach
• 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm: Lunch on us and debrief

Collect signatures on postcards for MPPs
Assemble a few friends and coworkers, to help lead the way. We’re asking everyone to sign a holiday postcard to their Member of Provincial Parliament, so that MPPs know that voters in their ridings expect decent work legislation in 2017. Tell us how many postcards you can use in your community, campus or workplace and we’ll send them to you ASAP.

Email us at [email protected] to request postcards, and be sure to include your mailing address as well as the quantity of cards you need.

Take the Decent Work Sing-Along Challenge!
If you haven’t done so already, join the many student, community and labour groups that have already added their voices to the Decent Work Sing-Along! It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3, 4!

• STEP 1: Assemble your Decent Work Sing-Along squad — or go solo!
• STEP 2: Choose a Decent Work song from the $15 & Fairness songbook (we revised the words of a few holidays songs to reflect our demands for decent work) — or make up your own lyrics! Then choose the person, group or union you are daring to take the Decent Work Sing-Along Challenge.
• STEP 3: Record your song – and don’t forget to include the person, group or union you’re daring to take the Challenge. (You can record it on your smartphone or use Facebook Live.)
• STEP 4: Post your video on Facebook or Twitter. Make sure to include the campaign website (15andfairness.org) and tag both $15 & Fairness as well as the person, group or union you are challenging.

Let’s make sure that our message of harmony, unity and solidarity is the one that prevails this holiday season. We’ll circulate the Decent Work Sing-Along videos via Facebook andTwitter. 

‘Day of Disruption’ sees strikes, occupations & demonstrations in 340 US cities
The Fight for $15 movement in the US has grown significantly, winning wage increases for nearly 20 million workers and putting an additional $62 billion into workers’ pockets. In addition to higher minimum wages, the Fight for $15 has won paid sick days, fairer scheduling and measures to mitigate involuntary part-time employment. The magnificent November 29 Day of Disruption involved tens of thousands of workers across the US — scores of whom were arrested. This inspiring action shows the growth and transformation of the movement since 2012 when just 200 non-union workers at McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King in New York City took strike action and walked off the job.

Don’t miss the Fight for $15’s inspirational N29 call-out video posted on Facebook, here. And for an excellent overview of both news stories and pictures from the day, visit the Fight for $15 website here.

As The Guardian states: “The Fight for 15 has grown into one of the nation’s largest progressive movements, alongside movements by undocumented immigrants, Black Lives Matter and environmental activists fighting global warming. Beginning with fast-food workers, the Fight for 15 now includes other groups, including childcare workers, home-care aides, airport workers and adjunct professors.”

The tremendous strength, confidence and momentum of the US movement gives us a glimpse of what might be possible here at home — but only if we redouble our efforts to make sure that 2017 is the year we win $15 and Fairness for everyone in Ontario.