Ending Discrimination

Canada’s unions call for fairness to mark Black History Month

February 1, 2020

To mark Black History Month this year, Canada’s unions call on the government to take meaningful actions to address the disparities in employment for Black workers.

Statistics show workers of colour are more likely to be employed in precarious, low-wage jobs with no benefits. These workers also have higher unemployment rates. In fact, the unemployment rate of Black women is almost double that of non-racialized women. Black men earn 66 cents for every dollar a non-racialized man earns, and Black women only 56 cents per dollar.

One important way to address these disparities is to strengthen the federal Employment Equity Act, and restore mandatory compliance with the Act for federal contractors.

“Strengthening the Employment Equity Act is one step towards fairness for racialized workers,” said Canadian Labour Congress Vice-President Larry Rousseau. “In our country’s history we have seen men and women of colour work to support each other, even when discriminatory laws made it that much more difficult. We owe it to them to correct such inequality moving forward.”

From Desmond Davis and the other founders of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters to his daughter, Janice Gairey, former Human Rights Director at the Ontario Federation of Labour. From Carrie Best, who founded her own newspaper and worked to publicize the case of Viola Desmond, to her son Cal Best, former President of the Civil Service Association of Canada.

“These workers and activists and many, many more have paved the way and ensured the participation of racialized workers who follow in their footsteps,” said Rousseau. “Now we will pave the way for future workers.”

For Black History Month, the Canadian Labour Congress will be doing interviews with Black union leaders, please check our Facebook page for more information.

  • Gender Equality
  • International Equal Pay Day: Canada’s Unions Call for an Integrated, Long-term Care Workforce strategy

    September 18, 2023
    Click to open the link
  • Social Justice and Democracy
  • Never again: Canada’s unions mark 10 years since the Rana Plaza factory collapse

    April 24, 2023
    Click to open the link
  • Ending Discrimination
  • BHM 2023: It’s time Canada takes care of Black care workers

    February 1, 2023
    Click to open the link
  • Ending Discrimination
  • Canada’s unions: hate and racism cannot continue to go unchecked

    December 10, 2022
    Click to open the link
  • Better Pay and Benefits
  • Parliament must act urgently to make sure workers aren’t left behind

    September 21, 2022
    Click to open the link
  • Ending Discrimination
  • Equal pay for work of equal value: it’s long past the time for employers and governments to get it right on pay equity

    September 18, 2022
    Click to open the link
  • Social Justice and Democracy
  • June 16 is International Domestic Workers’ Day

    June 16, 2022
    Click to open the link
  • Ending Discrimination
  • Asian Heritage Month: Canada must do more to eliminate anti-Asian racism

    April 30, 2022
    Click to open the link