The first Workers’ Justice cohort met every Thursday from September 18 to November 6, 2025. Over eight weeks, workers and community members came together to share their experiences, learn about workplace rights, and explore how collective action can create change in workplaces and communities.
The course was grounded in participants’ own knowledge and experiences. Sessions combined practical information, group discussion, participatory activities, and collective problem-solving. Together, participants examined why workplace injustices happen, who is most affected, and how workers can respond individually and collectively.
Learning from Experience
The course began with the knowledge participants already held about work, their communities, and the challenges workers face. Each session connected personal experiences to wider questions about unsafe working conditions, wage theft, employer power, labour law, and collective action.
Participants learned through group discussions, collaborative activities, and shared problem-solving. The course created a welcoming space where workers could learn from one another and strengthen their ability to advocate for themselves and others.
Eight Weeks of Learning and Action
Week 1: Situating Ourselves
What makes a good job, and why are good jobs difficult for so many workers to find?
Week 2: The Big Picture
How have global and historical processes shaped the injustices workers face today?
Week 3: Confronting Unsafe Work
Why is unsafe work so common? Which workers face the greatest risks, and why does the law often fail to protect them?
Week 4: Confronting Wage Theft
How do employers withhold wages from workers, and what can workers do to challenge wage theft?
Week 5: Confronting Employer Roadblocks
Why do employers and employer associations hold so much power? What tools do they use to maintain their position?
Week 6: Bringing It All Together
How can workers use what they’ve learned to fight for good jobs and challenge injustice at work?
Week 7: Workers’ Power in Our Workplaces
What strategies can workers use to build collective struggles over the long term?
Week 8: Expanding Our Visions of Justice and Solidarity
How can workplace struggles connect with wider movements for justice and community change?
Building Connections Across Communities
The final session brought participants together to reflect on what they had learned and consider how workplace struggles connect to wider community issues. Through a collaborative mapping activity, participants identified places, relationships, and experiences across Toronto, creating a shared picture of the communities involved in the course.
The activity reflected one of the course’s central ideas: workers don’t experience workplace injustice in isolation. Their experiences are connected to where they live, the services they access, their immigration status, their families, and the wider conditions shaping their communities.
In the Community
The Toronto Caribbean Newspaper published a feature about the first cohort and its contribution to worker education and community organizing in Northwest Toronto.
Read the Community Feature
Participants and facilitators mark the completion of the first Workers’ Justice Course on November 6, 2025.