Each year, the PSAC Social Justice Fund (SJF) supports projects that deliver humanitarian relief, fight poverty, promote labour rights, and strengthen worker protections. Through this work, the fund promotes Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) for workers in Canada and around the world. By funding local initiatives and building international partnerships, the SJF helps unions and workers identify hazards, defend their rights, and secure stronger safety measures from employers and governments. 

“Our SJF programs connect PSAC members to the struggles, hopes, and victories of workers around the world, said Sharon DeSousa, PSAC National President. “Every contribution, big or small, helps build a more just society.”  

Worker-to-worker solidarity 

A key feature of the initiative is its worker-to-worker exchanges. These exchanges build solidarity, share best practices, and connect local fights for safer workplaces to the global movement for dignity and justice at work. 

Whether Canadian unionists visit factories or join delegations abroad, the exchanges provide knowledge on hazard identification, employer accountability, and mental health at work. They also offer practical strategies to confront unsafe conditions and remind workers that health and safety is a collective right. 

“We can’t take our health and safety rights for granted – they can disappear overnight if we’re not vigilant,” said Jason Rochon, Nunavut Employees Union President, who visited a SJF project in Mexico. "Workers everywhere deserve protection, and when even one worker – here or abroad – loses their rights or their job for speaking up, that’s one too many.”  

Strengthening protections in Canada 

In Canada, the SJF improves OHS by addressing food insecurity, affordable housing, and violence prevention, especially in northern and Indigenous communities. The fund also provides training and resources for workers exposed to disasters. 

In the face of wildfires across Canada, the SJF supports workers facing hazardous smoke and extreme conditions – reaching beyond public service employees to the wider community.  

Supporting labour reform in Mexico 

In Mexico, the SJF supports unions in advancing safer working conditions under the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA). With funding from Employment and Social Development Canada and the involvement of Canadian and Mexican labour organizations, including PSAC, the Strengthening Capacity to Implement Labour Reform and Labour Justice in Mexico initiative promotes freedom of association, collective bargaining, stronger health and safety protections and an end to workplace violence.   

Extending OHS education worldwide 

The SJF also funds health and safety initiatives in the global South. In Bangladesh’s garment sector and the Philippines’ export processing zones, the SJF works with groups such as the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity and the Workers Assistance Center. These projects train workers – particularly women – on leadership, health and safety standards, and how to combat widespread risks like chemical exposure, extreme heat, and workplace violence. 

In Honduras and Haiti, PSAC supports union organizing and emergency strike funds where OHS is inseparable from basic human rights. These efforts have secured protections from gender-based violence, advanced health and safety clauses in contracts, and upheld the right to refuse dangerous work. 

PSAC also partner with groups such as Peace Brigades International and Rights Action, which provide accompaniment and mental health support to labour and Indigenous land defenders facing violence and retaliation.  

Building on a legacy 

As part of PSAC’s ongoing work to bring members together to share strategies and strengthen protections, the SJF continues to build on its proud legacy of defending safe workplaces from coast to coast to coast and across international borders. 

By supporting collective bargaining, worker education, and international campaigns, the SJF reinforces a shared commitment: every worker deserves to go home safe and healthy at the end of the day. 

The global links forged by the SJF remind us that workplace rights are human rights, and the fight for OHS is truly international.