Economic Justice 4ALL

In 2018, OnePA and allies led and won a campaign for the Fair Work Week law in Philadelphia.  The law created significant scheduling protections including the right to advance notice on schedules and the right to dependable access to steady hours for 130,000 retail, food service and hospitality workers in Philadelphia.

In spring 2019, OnePA convened a group of organizations that had fought for and won the city’s various worker protections. These organizations included the Restaurant Opportunities Center, National Domestic Workers’ Alliance, Community Legal Services, Make the Road PA, and Pathways PA. Together we agreed to tackle the city’s weak labor law enforcement infrastructure and formed the Coalition to Respect Every Worker, or CREW.

We kicked off our campaign with a lobby day in April, 2019, where we successfully demanded a $100,000 increase to the labor law enforcement office’s budget.  From there, we focused on our demand of forming an independent Office of Worker Protections in the city budget.  We placed a question on the 2020 primary ballot that, with 82% voting in favor, and established an independent Office of Worker Protections and Department of Labor. 

During the pandemic we organized for safety on the job with frontline workers, including with grocery workers in downtown Philadelphia.  OnePA grocery worker member leaders won major improvements in safety in their workplace, including through rallies and petitions with co-workers, letters from City Council and getting the state Department of Labor to put pressure on the company.  OnePA members also filed complaints about Fair Work Week labor law violations, and one member won a complaint through the Office of Worker Protections that required Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse to pay workers $45,500 for violations of the Fair Work Week law.

To this day, OnePA4ALL is committed to the path of economic justice, fair wages for all and thriving, instead of surviving