Government has a decisive role to play in using investment dollars for good jobs, green jobs, and Ontario- and Canadian-made products, she said. Despite “playing by the rules”, Canadian families are falling behind with four out of five of them living on less money than they had a generation ago.

Governments have abandoned the middle class and encouraged a growing gap between “the fortunate few” and working women and men, she said.

Economic recovery must include good jobs and other supports, including pension security, training and education, and employment insurance that “really covers you from job to job”.

Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath enters convention hall to address delegates.

The economic crisis has hit workers of colour harder than others. Community and labour activists are examining this disproportionate effect at a forum in Toronto, Saturday, Nov. 21. The event is at the Sheraton Centre where labour delegates from across Ontario will gather at the OFL convention for the week of Nov. 23 to set direction and policy for the coming two years on many issues, including on the equity front.

“What the employment statistics from the past year tell us is that while all Ontarians are struggling, racialized workers and their families have been hit especially hard,” says OFL executive vice-president Terry Downey, who is a forum co-chair. “Racialized workers have seen disproportionately larger increases in unemployment rates and disproportionately larger decreases in employment income.”

Co-chairing with Downey is Avvy Go, Clinic Director of the Metro Toronto Chinese and Southeast Asian Legal Clinic.  Although racialized workers could achieve greater job security and better pay from unionization, they are less likely to be union members, according to Go.

“We need to examine why that is so, and together, develop solutions to build communication and co-operation between communities,” she says. “The forum will allow activists from unions and racialized communities to develop a common action plan that will bring about positive solutions that will benefit all workers. It will promote a green-collar, substainable economy that includes good jobs for all.”