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Just Income Coalition: Action for a Minimum Wage hike in Manitoba
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Many Canadians have been fortunate over the past few years to benefit from a relatively stable economy where business and shareholders have prospered. Yet, as our standard of living has increased, cuts to social assistance rates, education and training, and social housing have left low-income Canadians sinking deeper and deeper into poverty.
In this context, the Just Income Coalition, a Manitoba-based group of faith, community, labour, women’s, Aboriginal and social policy organizations came together in 2002 out of a shared concern over the inadequate minimum wage and low wage employment in Manitoba. In the first year membership grew from a dozen organizations to twenty. This was not a tidy process, however, after a few meetings involving heated discussion and differing perspectives on focus and strategies, the group agreed to focus on advocating for increases to the provincial minimum wage as an initial strategy for addressing poverty. Today there are twenty-five formal partners and an email network of over seventy individual members.
Our most visible effort to date has been Just Income Week in October of 2003. The goals of the week were to raise public awareness and demonstrate, by collecting and presenting petition signatures, that Manitobans support increasing the minimum wage to a living wage and keeping it there. The week featured twelve events throughout the City of Winnipeg designed to draw attention to the inadequacy of the minimum wage and the impact of low wages on Manitobans. Events organized by Coalition partners included, an interfaith letter signed by leaders of all the main Christian denominations and other interfaith groups, street theatre, a concert, public forums with guest speakers, a poverty vigil, and a poverty workshop. The week culminated in the delivery of a petition with over 8000 signatures to the Minister of Labour.
Despite the enthusiastic public response to Just Income Week, and a recent public opinion poll conducted by Probe Research indicating that Manitobans consider the minimum wage too low, the Manitoba Government has been very resistant to move from their strategy of increasing the minimum wage by 25 cents an hour each year. The current minimum wage is $7.25 - too low to keep wage earners out of poverty.
The Coalition is now turning its efforts to launching a Low Wage Community Inquiry. The inquiry will hear submissions from community groups, individuals, and other stakeholders at community hearings in Winnipeg, Brandon, and Thompson in May.
Like the persistent widow of the gospels (Luke 18:1-5) who demonstrated
courage, persistence and determination not to give up in the face
of enormous obstacles, we too continue in our efforts to seek justice
for low-wage earners in Manitoba.
For a complimentary print copy of the related Global Economic Justice Report: Ending poverty in Canada: From political advocacy to social transformation (June, 2005) please contact Michael Polanyi with your mailing address.
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