*To view the Virtual Celebration of the 2020 Recipients of CIRA’s Canadian Freedom of Association Award: Deena Ladd and the Workers’ Action Centre (WAC), held on Thursday 23 September 2021, see the 90-minute webinar on the work of the Workers’ Action Centre on CIRA’s YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/qh5-bI59mIQ
On June 2, 2016, the Canadian Industrial Relations Association / Association canadienne des relations industrielles (ACRI-CIRA) announced the generous donation by Roy J. Adams of funds to support an annual award to a person or organization that has made an outstanding contribution to promoting understanding of and compliance with international standards regarding the right to organize and bargain collectively, as those standards apply to Canada (https://www.cira-acri.ca/en-awards#foaaward).
Consideration for the award shall include but not be limited to efforts or initiatives that establish or expand upon the right of all workers to form and join unions of their own choosing without prior authorization; that expand the guarantees for the free functioning of worker and employer organizations without interference by public authorities; and to respect, to promote and to realize in good faith the rights of workers and employers to collective bargaining in accord with internationally recognized human rights standards and, in particular, those principles and standards developed and promoted by the International Labour Organization.
Previous award winners are as follows: in 2019, Pierre Verge (accepted posthumously by his son Louis Verge); in 2018, Beverley McLachlin and Louis LeBel; and in 2017, Craig Bavis and Larry Kowalchuk.
We are pleased to announce that the joint winners of the 2020 Canadian Freedom of Association Award are the Workers’ Action Centre (WAC) and its executive director Ms. Deena Ladd.
Workers’ Action Centre
The Workers’ Action Centre (WAC) is a worker-based organization in Toronto 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 the WAC organizes for decent work.
WAC's members are workers in precarious jobs. They are recent immigrants, workers of colour, women, men, and youth. Most do not belong to unions and often cannot exercise basic freedom of association rights because they work in small workplaces, are temporary workers, on contract, independent contractors or unemployed. In one month, they may be juggling 2 or 3 jobs, as has been readily apparent in the Covid-19 pandemic; in another month, they might not have any work or income. When they are able to find full-time work, there is often still little protection against unfair working conditions.
WAC’s approach starts from the belief that the leaders in the fight for decent work should be the workers directly affected by poor working conditions, that the workers who have firsthand experience of problems at work will have the best insight into what will bring fairness and dignity to Ontario’s workplaces. WAC is a member-based organization, whose members are workers directly impacted by low wages, poor working conditions, and labour laws that too often fail to protect them. The organization is committed to developing the leadership of its members and members’ knowledge of their rights at work.
The mandate of the Workers’ Action Centre WAC's includes intervening in changing labour laws to bring them up to date with labour market realities and to improve their enforcement; building a movement for decent work through campaigns bringing together many union and community allies, most recently through campaigns such as the Fight for $15 & Fairness campaign and the campaign on Decent Work and Health geared to securing, among others, paid sick leave for people in precarious jobs.
WAC members are actively involved in its campaigns and advocacy work to improve wages and working conditions for all workers. Through sharing experiences at work and mutual support, WAC members seek to build a stronger movement for change. The constant objective has been to expand the boundaries of freedom of association for the most precarious and often vulnerable persons at work. This 2020 Canadian Freedom of Association Award seeks to recognize the strength and clarity of that commitment on the part of the Workers’ Action Centre.
Deena Ladd
Deena Ladd is the Executive Director of the Workers’ Action Centre (WAC). For over 20 years, she has been working to improve wages and working conditions primarily for racialized communities, women, low-wage workers and immigrant workers. She has worked as a union organizer with garment workers, home-based workers, and social service, retail and manufacturing workers. Deena has developed and taught courses and training sessions for rank and file unionized women, young workers and workers of colour for various federations of labour, unions and community organizations.
For the past twelve years, Deena Ladd has been working to build a membership-based worker’s centre in Toronto that can improve wages and working conditions for many working people. The Workers’ Action Centre (WAC), of which she is Executive Director, works with predominantly low-waged immigrant workers and workers of colour in precarious jobs that face discrimination, violations of rights and few, if any, benefits in the workplace.
The work of the Workers’ Action Centre is of course a collective effort, enriched by the contributions of so many persons. In awarding the 2020 Canadian Freedom of Association award jointly to the Workers’ Action Centre and to Deena Ladd, we wish to give special recognition to Deena Ladd’s outstanding contribution in bringing freedom of association rights to workers who, most often, have to overcome huge obstacles to exercising their fundamental rights to associate freely to improve their lives at work.
The Canadian Industrial Relations Association /
L’association canadienne des relations industrielles
(ACRI-CIRA)
Acknowledgement of the prize by Deena Ladd on her own behalf and that of the Workers’ Action Centre
Thank you so much for awarding the Workers' Action Centre the 2020 Canadian Freedom of Association Award. This is a lovely honor and more importantly a recognition of the thousands of workers in Canada who are fighting for decent wages and working conditions. Many of us are racialized workers, immigrants, migrants, low wage workers and women of colour and have been courageously speaking out, organizing, and building stronger alliances to raise awareness of precarious work, the need to change immigration and labour laws, to raise the minimum wage, ensure equal pay for equal work and to make sure no one gets left behind. This struggle is everyone's struggle and we remain determined in our fight for racial and economic justice! Good enough to work - Good enough to Stay!
Deena Ladd
15 June 2020