Climate Justice Forum

Join the Toronto and York Region Labour Council, Good Jobs For All Coalition, and Working Green 2050 for a special forum – Climate Justice: What Should Canadian Just Transition Look Like? happening Wednesday, June 23 at 7:30 pm. During this 90-minute forum, Labour Council president Andria Babbington and special guests will discuss what a just transition for Canada looks like.

Featured Speakers:

  • Merv King: Algonquin activist, coordinator of Injured Workers Program
  • Steve Shallhorn: Working Green 2050
  • Meg Gingrich: Assistant to National President, Steelworkers

labourcouncil.ca/justtransitionforum | PDF poster

EI Interprov Group

On April 8, 2021, the Good Jobs for All Coalition joined with 75 community and labour organizations from across Canada in signing on to a brief to the HUMA Parliamentary Committee for its study of EI. The brief “Employment Insurance for the 21st Century: How Do We Make E.I. Work for Workers?” was submitted by the Inter-provincial EI Working Group and makes 15 recommendations focused on:

  • Better EI Financing,
  • Better EI Access for More Workers,
  • Better EI Benefits and
  • Better Supports and Access to Justice for EI Claimants.

On April 22, Pam Frache of the Workers Action Centre spoke to the brief during the HUMA hearings (15:43:22 time mark).

COVID Hot Spots: COVID-19 Update [5]

This summer raised our awareness of COVID-19 hot spots in Toronto. Watch this Good Jobs For All video from a July 2020 forum for presentations that show the enormity of the issues facing racialized communities in Toronto as a result of the pandemic.

Thank you to Jennifer Yang (Toronto Star), Aleem Tharani (ATU 113), Nigel Barriffe (Urban Alliance Race Relations), Cheryl Prescod (Black Creek Community Health Centre) and Alejandra Ruis Vargas (ACORN) for participating in the panel discussion.

A Job-Rich Transition to a Carbon Neutral Future For All

Good Jobs For All and Labour Council’s Climate Justice Network are pleased to invite you to a public online forum on a Job-Rich Transition to a Carbon Neutral Future For All. This will be a participatory event where you can help develop a labour-community perspective to shape our governments’ plans for a green economic recovery that works for everyone.


For more information and to register, please go to labourcouncil.ca/greenjobsforum

COVID-19 Update [3]

Building a New Unemployment Insurance System

Among other things, COVID-19 put a spotlight on long-standing shortcomings of Canada’s EI system. Good Jobs for All’s EI Working Group worked hard to address the immediate needs of workers affected by the health and economic crisis (see April 13 and March 9 postings).

Now, the Working Group has identified proposals for rebuilding EI in the immediate and longer term. These include:

  • Waiving qualifying hours
  • Eliminating disqualification for those who quit “voluntarily” during the pandemic
  • Adjusting Work Sharing as a tool for a phased return to work
  • EI and EI-CERB costs must be assigned to general revenues, not EI
  • Many more elements

Please read Building a New Unemployment Insurance System for details.

Support the call for change! Write to your MP; the Hon. Carla Qualtrough, Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion; and to the Hon. Chrystia Freeland, Chair, Cabinet Committee on the federal response to the coronavirus (COVID-19).

A community-labour coalition