In greater Toronto where the industry has relied on generations of immigrants to provide its workforce, the labour movement has changed lives of thousands of workers who have come from every part of the world to apply their skills and build a future together.

Toronto Water Watch was a labour-community coalition that defeated Mayor Mel Lastman’s attempt to start
privatizing Toronto’s water and wastewater system. It helped connect a wide network of residents, environmental activists and union members to win the battle for public opinion and force one of the few defeats of Lastman’s agenda at City Hall.

The strategies adopted by the Campaign for Public Education helped build huge public support for an education fightback. The CPE’s efforts, combined with similar ones across the province, was a key factor in the Conservative regime’s defeat in 2003.

Hotel Workers Rising was a continent-wide campaign by the hospitality workers union UNITEHERE to raise standards in the hotel industry and secure organizing rights for new workplaces. Toronto was one
of eleven cities united in a co-ordinated bargaining strategy.

The fight for the $10 Minimum Wage one of the most far-reaching campaigns to be led by the Toronto & York Region Labour Council.