02) RAISE THE MINIMUM WAGE NOW!

 

PV Ontario Bureau

 

            Protests across Ontario will be the order of the day February 15th as thousands of activists tell Premier Kathleen Wynne that an $11/hour minimum wage is not an acceptable living wage.

 

            The Liberal Premier promised a year ago to raise the minimum wage, claiming she wanted to be known as "the social justice Premier".

 

            But $11 is not an increase, it's just adding in four years of lost purchasing power due to inflation. Today's $11 has the same purchasing power as $10.25 in 2010. By indexing the minimum wage at its current impoverished level, Wynne is embedding an impoverished minimum wage for the long‑term. No wonder minimum wage workers and activists are mobilizing against the "social injustice Premier".

 

            A mass campaign involving youth, labour, the anti‑poverty and social justice movements, and the Young Communist League and Communist Party, has come together to fight for a $14/hour minimum, a demand that has widespread public support. Many of those involved say $14 is not enough to bring minimum wage workers out of deep poverty, but they are committed to the fight that this campaign has ignited.

 

            The campaign has no supporters in the Legislature, with the Liberals and Tories opposed, and the NDP non‑committal. Only the Communist Party supports the demand for $14, and campaigned in the last election for a $19 minimum wage.

 

            "Corporations in Ontario are sitting on a pool of dead capital worth $750 billion, which is the largesse handed over by Liberal and Tory governments through corporate tax cuts and corporate tax rates that are now the lowest in the industrialized world. That money could have and should have been used to raise wages and living standards and create good jobs for young workers, the working poor and the unemployed," said Liz Rowley, leader of the Communist Party (Ontario). "Substantially raising the minimum wage raises the floor under all wages. Together with job creation in manufacturing, industry, construction, and public services ‑ the real economy ‑ this is the single most important factor in moving the economy towards recovery for working people."

 

            But driving down wages and living standards is exactly what austerity is about, and what corporations are demanding the Liberals, Tories, and NDP deliver. A cacophony of opposition by business organizations large and small has opened up, with the assertion that business and the economy will collapse under the weight of any increase in the minimum wage. It's the same song by business every time the minimum wage comes up. 

 

            With a minority government in Ontario, and an election just weeks away, this is the time to push the minimum wage onto the public agenda. Continuing mass protests and escalating action will help set the stage for an election that debates the real, bread and butter issues: more jobs, better wages, and better living standards.

 

(The above article is from the February 15-28, 2014, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading socialist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)