10 years of decent work with ONN: Building worker power, now and tomorrow

October 7 marks the World Day for Decent Work.

The impact of building worker power

As someone who has been leading ONN’s decent work movement building and public policy work for the last eight years, I often come across people who have been part of our movement in one way or another. They always have an important story to share.

Just this past week I was in a meeting with an Executive Director and her staff, someone I had not connected with since 2018. She asked me if I remembered her from one of the decent work learning circles we held that year (we conducted eight across the province, to learn about women’s working conditions in our sector). She shared how she was inspired by the conversation and the energy of her peers in the learning circle and, shortly after, advocated to her own ED at the time for decent work: better pay, health and dental benefits, and professional development opportunities. She turned to her staff and said this is how we got decent work. 

I share this story to underscore how impactful building worker power is, and the long-lasting importance of building a decent work movement in Ontario’s nonprofit sector. This is not the first story I’ve heard nor will it be the last.

Looking back

I came to ONN in 2017, just as we were planting decent work seedlings:

• We just published what are now seminal decent work reports: ChangeWork and Shaping the Future.
• We had consulted with the provincial government on reforming the Employment Standards Act with a nonprofit lens: our response to the repeals later in 2018.
• Status of Women Canada (at the time) had awarded us a grant to explore what decent work for women in nonprofits means and looks like, and then advance it.
• We were in deep conversation with our Pensions Working Group to figure out a sector-driven pension solution. Ultimately endorsing OPTrust Select as the defined benefit pension plan for the sector. 

I remember three things so clearly from that time: 

1. The hunger of nonprofit workers to talk about their working conditions and advocate for themselves. 
2. The drive of nonprofit employers to deliver on decent work in their organizations. 
3. The rest of the decent work movement energized to act:
   • Workers Action Centre organizing the $15 and fairness campaign.
   • Atkinson Foundation’s funding and thought leadership.
   • United Way Greater Toronto (United Way Toronto & York Region at the time) and McMaster University’s Poverty and Employment Precarity in Southern Ontario project research on precarious work.
   • The Neighbourhood Group (St. Stephen’s at the time) first piloting the Decent Work Charter and Checklist created by Toronto Neighbourhood Centres.
   • It is this collective movement that fought long and hard for paid sick days in Ontario during the pandemic, where we learned a tough lesson about advocacy. No matter how prepared and organized you may be, a public policy win is not guaranteed.

In the early stages I also remember a huge gap in our decent work movement. It lacked the acknowledgement of how most of our workers are from equity-deserving communities, analysis of how different intersecting identities shape working conditions, and proactive solutions to combat the same. Fast forward to 2023, Pathways to Decent Work, eight pathways, and numerous resources to help organizations advance decent work and equity for Black, Indigenous, and/or racialized people in our sector, was born through the hard work of our colleague Yami at that time.

10 years of decent work is a fraction of time it takes to change systems

Milestone anniversaries are important, as I learned recently when I attended Laidlaw Foundation’s 10 year reflection on their Trust and Reconciliation work. It’s a much needed moment to stop and reflect on systems change work because the work can be so incremental, non-linear, and imperfect. 

Over the past 10 years, I’m proud to say ONN has fundamentally shifted the conversation about work in the nonprofit sector through our decent work movement building, alongside nonprofits, funders, and other interested parties. It took 10 years to move decent work as a concept from the International Labour Organization to a necessary way of being for nonprofits across Ontario and Canada. Regardless of public policy wins, that means something, especially as I think of the many stories like the one I shared above. 

What created conditions for this type of systemic change:

• Trust-based philanthropy that allowed us to be experimental.
• Unwavering commitment of our colleagues at ONN to drive the work forward with innovation and creativity. 
• Simply put, good, strong partners to champion decent work.
• Deep curiosity of nonprofits to go on this journey with us. 

But, even as we recognize that many in our sector see and believe in the value of decent work we are at a moment of inflection.

Decent work: what now?

The work isn’t always easy – it can involve difficult conversations, moments of change management, time for reflection – but, the opportunity to create a thriving sector, with fair, just employment is something that many nonprofits and workers continue to strive for. 

And yet, we know at this moment as we reflect on the last decade of the decent work movement, that systems and barriers are working against our goals. There was some hopefulness as we came out of the pandemic that decent work could revolutionize the nonprofit sector and how we support our workers. But, current backlash to equity, increasing racism and polarization, the rise in facism, austerity, and the economic downturn all affect decent work in negative ways.

A big daunting question remains: what is the future of decent work?

Don’t stop, don’t go backwards, keep building worker power

The answer is simple: don’t stop, and don’t go backwards, keep building worker power.  

We have come so far in building a foundation of decent work in the nonprofit sector. We might slow down in the face of new challenges, shift our tactics to tackle new frontiers of decent work, and embrace new allies to protect progressive gains. But, there is no option to stop.

Time and time again we have learned that it is building worker power – empowering, organizing, validating, and equipping individuals workers to collectively shift their working conditions – moves us closer to the systems change we seek. 

So, my call to action to you all is to join the decent work movement and, if you are already part of the movement, recommit to another 10 years of movement building with us.