The COVID pandemic has both intensified and further exposed the inequalities that shape the Canadian labour force. What we have witnessed has been predominantly low-income, racialized and immigrant workers working in precarious conditions on the front-lines of the pandemic; often leaving themselves and their communities at a greater risk of infection, pandemic related job loss, and the associated consequences that come with a lack of access social supports such as affordable child care, health benefits and paid sick leave.
This podcast series, co-hosted by Kiké Roach, the Unifor Chair in Social Justice and Democracy at X University, and Salmaan Khan, will profile the experiences of racialized front-line workers in order to highlight the ongoing historical and structural forces that have contributed to the adverse impacts of the pandemic on their lives. Each episode is framed around a topical issue facing front-line workers during the pandemic such as inequality in vaccine rollouts, health and safety at work, exploitation of temporary and migrant labour, wages and benefits, and the significance of race-based data in shaping and effecting policy. Each episode will center the voices of workers themselves, in addition to partnering with labour and community organizers.
This episode of Essential Work features a conversation with Adam Lee. Adam is a graduate student pursuing a Masters in Law, and has been working at a local grocery store as a cashier since the fall of 2021 - a job that has required them to engage in a lot of face to face interactions at the height of a pandemic. They talk about juggling school and work, and the challenges of standing up for their rights in the face of unsupportive employers and customers.
10 Jan 2023
Activism in the Labour Movement
On this episode of Essential Work, hosts Kiké and Salmaan are joined by Andria Babbington, the President of the Toronto & York Region Labour Council. She began working in hotels as a room attendant at a young age, but was soon organizing and representing other hotel workers, and became one of the youngest chief stewards in her union’s history at the age of 19. After years of activism in the labour movement, she has become the first woman of colour to sit as President in the Labour Council’s 150 year history.
Andrea talks about her early working life and the road that led her to labour organizing, and the impact of the pandemic on hotel workers, a workforce with a high proportion of immigrants, and women, especially women of colour.
10 Jan 2023
Race-Based Data
This episode of Essential Work tackles the topic of race-based data: What is it? Why does it matter? And what role can it play in targeting systemic inequities, especially during a pandemic?
In this episode, co-host Salmaan Khan speaks with Dr. Andrew Pinto, founder and director of The Upstream Lab, and Dr. Grace-Edward Galabuzi, Associate Professor at X Univesity in the department of Politics and Public Administration and author of Canada’s Economic Apartheid, to unpack the importance of race based data within the context of a historical and contemporary racialized Canadian state.
10 Jan 2023
Personal Support Workers
This episode of Essential Work looks at systemic discrimination issues starting with Personal Support Workers, a job sector made up largely of immigrant women of colour. Although they were at the centre of the COVID storm in Long-term Care Homes, caring for the elderly, people with disabilities and people in rehabilitation, Personal Support Workers’ voices have remained largely absent from media and public discourse. In this episode, co-host Kiké Roach speaks with two PSWs about their experiences working on the front lines of the pandemic.
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