Resources

Resource List

Here's a list of resources for Black workers in Ontario. Click here to learn how to unionize.

Health + Wellness

Afri-Can Food Basket
“Building Strong, Sustainable, Local Food Systems”

The Afri-Can FoodBasket is a community based non-profit organization that has been at the forefront of championing Food Justice and Food Sovereignty for Toronto’s African, Caribbean, Black (ACB) community since 1995.

Black Femme Legal
A Black femme led organization offering a workplace toolkit in support of Black queer and trans women, femmes and gender expansive folks across the 2SLGBTQI+ community in Ontario.

Black Health Alliance
The Black Health Alliance is a community-led charity working to improve the health and well-being of Black communities in Canada.

Healing Through Movement
Yoga, meditation + wellness resources to facilitate healing

Yamikani started teaching in May 2017 in Ottawa after finding that most yoga spaces did not reflect the communities that they were a part of. They are a movement based practitioner who works at the intersections of gendered and racial violence. Yami weaves ancestral teachings, decolonial practices and movement to support connection to space and place.

Black Food Toronto
A food sovereignty initiative that aims to address food insecurities faced by disadvantaged, low income and undocumented members of Toronto’s African, Carribean, Black community (ACB). ACB community members who have suffered hardship due to the coronavirus or are food insecure can contact the initiative who will follow up.

TAIBU Community Health Centre
TAIBU Community Health Centre offers Black-identifying clients from throughout the Greater Toronto Area access to primary care, health promotion and disease prevention programs in a culturally affirming environment.

Women's Health in Women's Hands
Women's Health In Women's Hands is a Community Health Centre for racialized women living in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Their primary health care team of highly skilled health care professionals specialize in the health and wellness needs of racialized women and prioritizes those from African, Caribbean, Latin American and South Asian communities.

Workers' Rights

Canadian Labour Congress (CLC)
The Canadian Labour Congress is the largest labour organization in Canada, bringing together dozens of national and international unions, provincial and territorial federations of labour and community-based labour councils to represent more than 3 million workers across the country.

Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU)
CBTU (Ontario) seeks to fulfill the dream of Black trade unionists, both living and deceased, who throughout our labour history in Canada have courageously and unremittingly struggled to build a national movement that brings our collective strength and varied talents to bare in an unending effort to achieve economic, political and social justice for all.

CBTU pledges to continue the struggles of our ancestors dating back to slavery and throughout our history in Canada to create a more just society by working in coalition with organized labour and other allies whose mission is consistent with these objectives.

Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL)
Just as workers unite in a union to protect their rights, unions also unite in federations of labour to fight for better working and living conditions. The Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) serves as an umbrella group for working people and their unions.

From their inception in 1957, the OFL has grown to represent over one million Ontario workers belonging to more than 1,500 locals from 54 affiliated unions, making them Canada’s largest labour federation. Their strong membership and constant vigilance make the OFL a formidable political voice.

Toronto & York Region Labour Council
Since 1871, the Labour Council has championed principles which improve the lives of its members and their communities. Today, we work for justice in our workplaces, in our politics, in our communities, and in our world.

Workers Action Centre
The Workers’ Action Centre (WAC) is a worker-based organization. We are committed to improving the lives and working conditions of people in low-wage and unstable employment. Thousands of working families are struggling to make ends meet, so we take action and organize for decent work.

Human Rights + Discrimination

Black Legal Action Centre (BLAC)
‍BLAC is an independent not-for-profit community legal clinic that combats individual and systemic anti-Black racism by conducting research, engaging in structural transformation, and providing legal services to members of Ontario’s Black communities.

IAVGO
‍IAVGO is a charitable not-for-profit community-based legal clinic that has provided free legal services to injured workers in Ontario since 1975. We are funded by Legal Aid Ontario. IAVGO operates Advocates for Injured Workers, a student legal aid clinic.

Ontario Human Rights Legal Support Centre
‍The Human Rights Legal Support Centre (HRLSC) offers human rights legal services to individuals throughout Ontario who have experienced discrimination contrary to Ontario's Human Rights Code

Scarborough Community Legal Services
SCLS was founded in 1981 as a community legal clinic to provide "poverty law" services. Poverty law includes work in areas of law that are particularly important for low-income people. They have on staff: lawyers, community legal workers, intake workers, and support staff.

West Scarborough Community Legal Services
West Scarborough Legal offers a variety of legal services to low-income residents who live in ‘west’ Scarborough and who qualify financially. Low-income residents who live East of Victoria Park Avenue, West of Midland and South of Steeles Avenue East may qualify for services from West Scarborough Community Legal Services.

Injury, Health + Safety

File a Workplace Health & Safety Complaint in Ontario
You can file a complaint if you believe conditions in a workplace are unsafe or if you or someone else is experiencing harassment or violence on the job.

Occupational Health & Safety Act
Learn about the Occupational Health and Safety Act and supporting regulations and how they protect workers.

Right to refuse or stop work where health and/or safety in danger
The Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) gives a worker the right to refuse work that they believe is unsafe to themselves or another worker.

Workplace Safety & Insurance Board (WSIB)
WSIB Ontario provides wage-loss benefits, medical coverage and support to help people get back to work after a work-related injury or illness.

Workers Health & Safety Center
Workers Health & Safety Center provides information to employees about their right to a safe and healthy workplace.

Workers Health and Safety Legal Clinic
The Workers' Health and Safety Legal Clinic (WHSLC) provides legal services to low-income non-unionized workers who need assistance with legal matters that relate to their employment rights or their health and safety rights at work.

Migrant Workers

IAVGO Community Legal Clinic
IAVGO has prioritized the workers’ compensation (WSIB) cases of migrant farmworkers in Ontario since 2005. IAVGO prioritizes these cases because the WSIB refuses to correct the systemic barriers and discriminatory policies that prevent migrant workers from obtaining equal access to Ontario’s workers compensation system.
‍
‍Phone: (416) 924-6477
‍Fax: (416) 924-2472
‍Toll-free in Ontario: 1-877-230-6311
‍Toll-free in Canada for Migrant Workers: 1-866-521-8535

Justicia 4 Migrant Workers (J4MW)
J4MW strives to promote the rights of migrant farm workers (participating in agricultural streams of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, including the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program) and farm workers without a formal immigration status. Promoting workers’ rights entails creating for spaces where workers themselves can organize and voice their concerns without losing their work or being repatriated.

Phone: (647) 834-4932.

Migrant Workers Alliance for Change (MWAC)
Migrant Workers Alliance for Change is building a member-led organization of migrant farmworkers, care workers, students and more to win worker and immigration justice.

Phone: 1-855-567-4722
Email: info@migrantworkersalliance.org

Migrant Worker Health Project
The project provides evidence-based educational initiatives that describe migrant workers' barriers to healthcare and service providers, and facilitate collaborative identification of strategies to increase these workers' access to healthcare services and workers' compensation.

They also have a list of resources for migrant agricultural workers, specifically in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Migrant Rights Network
Migrant Rights Network is building a migrant-led movement to win full and permanent immigration status for all migrants including undocumented people

HOW IT WORKS

Steps to Unionization

Step 1:
JOIN THE UNION
COMMITTEE

STEP 2:
SIgn a
UNION cARD

STEP 3:
CERTIFICATION

STEP 4:
SECRET BALLOT
VOTE

STEP 5:
ORLB
CERTIFICATE

Union committees are co-workers who support each other, share information, strategy and ideas on what kind of union they want to build.

‍There is no union without a union committee.

The majority of workers must sign union cards. Union cards are confidential.

‍Your employer will never see who signs a card. Union membership cards are presented to the Labour Board in order to get a union vote.

The union files for certification with the Ontario Labour Relations Board.

This application process is made in order to ask the Labour Board to conduct a vote.

5 days after filing for certification, the Ontario Labour Relations Board will hold a secret ballot vote.

50% + 1 of voters, must vote YES for a union to be formed.

The Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) will issue a certificate allowing researchers to bargain their working conditions and start to form a union.