"Feast for Fairness" Serves Pie Crumbs at Farmers Market, Calls for $14 Minimum Wage for All Workers

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Oct. 11, 2013) - Wearing aprons and chef hats, community members will be serving up pumpkin pie crumbs at a fully decorated Thanksgiving table outside the farmers market at the St. Lawrence Market on Thanksgiving Weekend (October 12), calling for an end to minimum wage exemptions for farm workers and a raise in the minimum wage to $14.

WHAT: Feast for Fairness calling for equal wages for migrant workers; $14 now

WHEN: 11:00am, Saturday October 12, 2013

WHERE: Farmers Market at Toronto's St. Lawrence Market (Front St. E and Jarvis)

WHO: Campaign to Raise the Minimum Wage and Migrant Workers Alliance for Change

VISUALS: Fully decorated Thanksgiving table, workers in aprons and chef hats serving pie crumbs.

Ontario's minimum wage has been frozen at $10.25 for three years, pushing workers almost 20% below the poverty line. The Campaign to Raise the Minimum Wage and the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change are calling on the Premier Kathleen Wynne and the Liberal government to implement a $14 minimum wage for all workers - including farm workers who are presently exempted from the minimum wage and other protections under the Employment Standards Act.

"We put food on Ontario's table, but Ontario's laws unjustly exempt farm workers from minimum wage, overtime and holiday pay," explains Gilberto, a migrant farm worker who has worked in the Leamington area. "All workers should be entitled to a minimum wage that brings us out of poverty and all employers should have to provide these basic benefits that other workers are entitled to."

Johnna, a live-in caregiver and member of the Caregivers Action Centre agrees, "All workers deserve a fair piece of the pie, which means a $14 minimum wage - one that is properly enforced for everyone."

"Farm workers, food processors, restaurant workers, caregivers are the people that put food on the table but a low minimum wage and inconsistent laws are pushing many of them to food banks and into poverty," states Sharon Anderson, from the Campaign to Raise the Minimum Wage. "This Thanksgiving, communities all across Ontario are coming together to demand a $14 minimum wage to support low-income workers putting food on the table."

For more information on the campaign, visit: www.raisetheminimumwage.ca and http://www.migrantworkersalliance.org #14now #MakeItRight #InItTogether