Contrary to recent media headlines, the law still says a $15 minimum wage and fairer scheduling rules are coming on January 1, 2019. As it stands, more than 1.7 million workers are set to receive their wage increase in less than 14 weeks. This is why we took this important message straight to Queen's Park today, to set the record straight!
Click here to check out photos from the press conference
Click here to watch the live streem
The confusion about the future of Ontario's minimum wage stems from Labour Minister Laurie Scott signalling her intent to side with the Big Business lobby that wants to cancel our $15 minimum wage and our other new workplace laws. Unless backed by legislative action, these kinds of statements can be understood as "trial balloons". Governments release statements to gauge the public's response to an initiative. How the public responds helps the government decide whether to proceed, pull back, -- or go even further. That's why what we do now really matters.
WHAT WE DO NOW WILL MAKE HISTORY.
We must let every government MPP know, we expect them to put our need for decent work ahead of corporate interests. Here is what you can do:
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Email Doug Ford today. Each and everyone of us need to speak out right now! Please send an email today (click here). If you are a member of a community group, union, or student organization with access to an email list, please ask your organization to circulate this call to action.
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Get ready for an emergency action. If the government does go forward with legislation (or regulation) that attacks our new workplace laws, we need to respond no later than the following day. For Toronto, this means heading over to the Ministry of Labour (400 University Ave) at 5:00 pm the day after they table legislation (or regulation) rolling back our rights. For other actions and other cities, check our website (click here) or Facebook page (click here) to see where you can connect.
- Help fund our fight. We urgently need financial resources to organize and extend our fight. Big Business has lots of money to donate to political parties, buy advertising, and influence media. But this campaign relies on all of us donating our time and money to this fight. Whether its copying flyers and posters or providing buttons and banners, we are counting on you to help us. Click here to make a contribution right now. We promise we will make good use of every single penny we receive.
Please don't forget: if the government felt confident about cancelling our wage increase and rolling back our labour laws, Premier Ford would be front and centre of a major news conference.
But they are NOT confident. They know, as do we, that over 66% of the Ontarians support a $15 minimum wage, including 62% of small business owners and nearly half of Conservative voters.
So please join us as we continue the countdown to $15, and help spread this message far and wide.
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Millions of workers are counting on a $15 minimum wage, equal pay for equal work, paid sick days and so much more. Let's double-down on organizing to make sure these rights are protected, enforced, and arrive on time.