New Orleans After several campaigns almost yielded victories around Canada, ACORN Canada in British Columbia broke through in New Westminster with a stunning, unanimous vote to win the first living wage policy for any governmental jurisdiction in the country. Perhaps as remarkable was the adoption of a top tier wage and [...]]]>

New Orleans After several campaigns almost yielded victories around Canada, ACORN Canada in British Columbia broke through in New Westminster with a stunning, unanimous vote to win the first living wage policy for any governmental jurisdiction in the country. Perhaps as remarkable was the adoption of a top tier wage and benefits level to one of the highest levels in North America for contract wages: $16.74 per hour! V-I-C-T-O-R-Y, VICTORY, VICTORY IS OUR CRY!!!

When leaders of BC ACORN like Dave Tate and Canada Drouin and the outstanding organizing team directed by head organizer in BC, John Anderson, first initiated the campaign they knew prospects were good given the sold working families orientation of this Vancouver suburb, but they also knew that this would need to be a coalition effort so they forged strong partnerships with labor and others to push the measure. Also, invaluable was the excellent research and constant assistance provided by Seth Klein and the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives. A report they had authored that defined a family and child centered wage policy became the “gold standard” for setting the number that eventually prevailed.

Going into the meeting of the New West council, our friends on the council thought we had the majority, but we wanted to win decisively. One of the members working with city officials had also tried to build support for a middle ground alternative in the staff report which would not adopt a living wage policy but instead implement an “ethical contracting” policy, hoping that a looser social responsibility angle might peel off a vote or two or delay our measure. Now, we know we can go back and win the ethical standards provision in the next round.

Tactically, ACORN Canada decided to sit in the audience with their crowd and let the work they had done behind the scenes speak loudest, and it turned out to be the right judgment when the council ended up voting unanimously to approve the policy and become the first city in Canada to create a living wage measure.

The pressure now moves towards the ACORN Canada campaign in Ottawa, where the votes are still fluid and the measure is bouncing around the poverty reduction committee, but now that the first victory has been won, look for ACORN Canada to be moving their living wage campaign in governmental jurisdictions all over the country.

Celebrate, dance to the music!

Boston Talking to organizers the last night about security workers being subcontracted, one casually mentioned what could and could not be done because of the Boston Living Wage ordinance.  At Boston University with Professor Lee Staples as we made the case and claims for the power of community organizing it was natural to once again [...]]]>

Boston Talking to organizers the last night about security workers being subcontracted, one casually mentioned what could and could not be done because of the Boston Living Wage ordinance.  At Boston University with Professor Lee Staples as we made the case and claims for the power of community organizing it was natural to once again reference the impact of the more than great living wage ordinance ACORN and labor allies had won in Boston what seems like yesterday, but probably more than 10 years ago now.

In living wage fights in the US the issue is often framed around what the impact on jobs and employers will be.  In talking about citizen wealth in these fights we often had to defend against whether or not living wages were an appropriate anti-poverty method, rather than being able to assume that everyone shared a value that work should be paid fairly to the laborer.

I couldn’t help thinking as we parsed this again at BU about the very different way that ACORN Canada is dealing with living wage matters in New Westminster (outside of Vancouver) that just voted to research the matter this week or in Ottawa where a critical vote is happening today, 12/3/09.  In Ottawa the framing is overtly about citizen wealth and, importantly, poverty reduction, and in taking the issue head on in a report being released today called “Poverty is Not Cheap” (www.acorncanada.org), ACORN Canada doesn’t mince words or dollars.  Using figures and methodology from recent reports by the Ontario Association of Food Banks, they were able to calculate that the cost of poverty to every household in the province was a staggering $2300!

Bringing the figure home in Ottawa the report calculated the cost just to the city budget of allowing poverty to exist and encouraging its health by not paying living wages:

What does Ottawa pay towards social programs?

Ottawa’s price tag: $264,372,000

Add to all of this some additional figures that indicated why a living wage should be between $12 and $13 per hour, and when one lay the report back down, it seemed like the leaders of Ottawa would be making a serious financial mistake by not paying all subcontracted workers a living wage!

It’s worth watching this vote closely for what could be history in the making in Canada, just as the living wage ordinance made huge change and critical history in Boston.