National campaign fighting migrant worker exploitation wins $50,000 prize - Toronto Star

The campaign to stop deportations and win labour rights, led by Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, wins the Atkinson Foundation’s Good Fight prize.

Atkinson Foundation CEO Colette Murphy speaks at Tuesday night’s awards ceremony. Members of Migrant Workers Alliance for Change won the $50,000 Good Fight prize for their United We Are Stronger campaign.

A campaign uniting migrant workers in Canada to battle exploitation has won a prestigious social justice award from the Atkinson Foundation.

The United We Are Stronger initiative has advocated for migrants in essential sectors across the country, fighting to stop deportations, secure work permit extensions and win labour protections. 

The campaign, led by Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, will receive $50,000 with this year’s Good Fight prize.

The award recognizes exemplary work toward economic and social justice — a struggle that legendary Toronto Star founder and publisher Joseph Atkinson termed “the good fight.”

Canadian migrant workers face systemic exclusion and unequal rights, said Colette Murphy, CEO of the Atkinson Foundation and a member of the Good Fight prize jury.

“But it’s wonderful, for just one night, to stand back and take in the exceptional efforts to fight for working people in a world buckling under the weight of extreme wealth concentration.”

Murphy added, “At its core, the United We Are Stronger campaign recognizes that labour rights and immigration status are deeply connected — when a person’s ability to stay in the country depends entirely on their boss, standing up for fair treatment is difficult if not dangerous.”

The campaign has largely supported workers in the food and care industries, finding them allies in unions, researchers and faith groups, said Syed Hussan, executive director of Migrant Workers Alliance for Change. 

“We’re all struggling with the high cost of rent, the high cost of groceries and low wages, whether you’re a migrant or a citizen,” said Hussan. 

“It’s necessary for us to unite and deal with the government policies and corporate profiteering that are causing this crisis.”

Organizers advocated for migrant workers as essential community members who are increasingly being scapegoated for the country’s housing crisis, health-care shortages and social tensions.

Hussan said he is proud to have helped two Mexican temporary foreign workers secure a lost wages settlement from a New Brunswick lobster processor.

It was a legal battle to get the pair Canadian visas so they could return from Mexico to have their successful day in court, Hassan said. 

“To me, this is a story of the enormous systemic ways in which migrants are denied justice,” he said.

“But it’s also a story of racialized working-class people standing up and fighting not just for themselves, but for the rights of others.”

Two other finalists each won $25,000 for their “good fight” efforts: a renoviction resistance campaign by ACORN Canada, and a coalition to bring employee ownership trusts to Canada.

“The Migrant Workers Alliance for Change’s impactful advocacy and organizing, alongside that of our two additional finalists, only reinforces our decision to recognize and support decent work campaigns year after year,” said Murphy.

Elissa Mendes is a staff reporter with the Toronto Star. Reach her via email: emendes@thestar.ca