Stand in solidarity with the people who feed our communities. As we are receiving more news of hostilities directed at migrant farm workers, let’s send a strong message that migrant workers are not responsible for the pandemic. No to racism and xenophobia!

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As we celebrate 420, demand fairness and decent working conditions for all cannabis workers!

Tom Teahen, CEO
Workplace Safety and Insurance Board
200 Front St. W
Toronto ON M5J 3J1
Dear Mr. Teahen,

I am writing to you on behalf of Justicia for Migrant Workers (J4MW) with respect to the COVID-19 pandemic. J4MW is writing to request urgent action by the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board regarding migrant agricultural workers’ access to WSIB benefits during this crisis. We urge the WSIB to immediately:

Write to employers of migrant workers educating them on their duty to report COVID-19 infections and remind them of their Human Rights obligations for workers who report an accident or cluster to WSIB;

Communicate what protocols the WSIB has in place to isolate infected workers (and protect uninfected workers) if there is an outbreak in the bunkhouse or workplace; and

Enable injured and ill migrant workers to remain in Ontario for health care

Educate employers about their reporting and Code obligations

J4MW is urging you, in your capacity as CEO of the WSIB, to write a letter to every employer of migrant farm workers to remind them of their obligation to report every migrant farm worker that is diagnosed with both presumptive and confirmed cases of COVID-19.

Access to WSIB is especially important because of the differential treatment that exists for injured and sick migrant workers as a result of being tied to a restrictive work permit. Various levels of government deny migrant workers access to benefits and entitlements that are available to resident workers of this province. WSIB is all that many of these workers will have practical access to.

As you know, employers must report work-related injuries to WSIB per the Act and OPM 15-01-02 Employers’ Initial Accident-Reporting. Migrant farm workers have expansive WSIB coverage including while in flight, in their bunkhouses and while out doing grocery shopping per OPM 12-04-08 Foreign Agricultural Workers. This means that if workers contract COVID-19, it is virtually guaranteed to be work-related.

With migrant workers living in shared accommodations with very little ability to exert their rights given their tied work permit, these workers are highly susceptible during this pandemic. It is critical that the WSIB is proactive by ensuring that employers know of their reporting obligations

Further, it is imperative that the WSIB stress the anti-reprisal measures and enforcement mechanisms that exist under the Ontario Human Rights Code if workers face any form of reprisal for exercising their rights under the workers’ compensation system.

As thousands of migrants employed under the auspices of the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program are to arrive in Ontario, time is of the essence that workers are not deterred nor discouraged by employers, recruiters, or government officials for filing WSIB, as this should be the main form of income and health care supports for migrant workers who become sick.

Communicate protocols for workplace clusters involving migrant workers

As workers both live and work in employer provided housing, it is vital that the WSIB communicate what protocols it has in place to isolate infected workers (and protect uninfected workers) if there is an outbreak in the bunkhouse or workplace. We are already seeing clusters forming in various bunkhouses across the country.

The federal government has mandated that workers go into quarantine for the first two weeks after they arrive. However, they have not identified what will happen in the event of a workplace cluster. This is Ontario’s job, and indeed, the WSIB’s job.

It is vital that you let us know how you will handle a cluster so that we can communicate it to our communities. During these times, information is key. We cannot stress how important it is that you communicate what protocols the WSIB will follow when a workplace cluster happens where migrant workers live and work.

Enable injured and ill migrant workers to remain in Ontario for health care

During this crisis there are opportunities to undertake proactive measures to ensure that no sick or injured worker is unfairly repatriated to their home country. It is of the utmost importance that injured and sick migrant workers are provided with the choice and means to remain in Ontario to ensure that they can receive full medical support to heal. We are extremely concerned that employers will repatriate migrant workers who become ill during this pandemic. The WSIB therefore needs to make sure that protections are in place to deter this from happening.

In closing, there have been many accolades directed to the numerous categories of essential workers who sacrifice their lives during this pandemic. Many are precarious workers often forgotten, ignored and silent whose contributions are not highlighted. Often employed under dirty, dangerous and deadly working conditions, we need to move beyond platitudes to ensure that no injured or sick worker is forgotten during this crisis, and that the necessary resources and support are accorded to them to protect their health and well-being at this particular moment.

Sincerely,
Justicia for Migrant Workers (J4MW)

As Ontario prepares to enforce the provincial Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act, Justicia for Migrant Workers (J4MW) expresses our concern about the implications and impact this will have on precarious communities such as migrant farm workers.

In response to efforts by the Leamington community to name and shame migrant farm workers for not social distancing, the local detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police created a youtube video to ‘educate’ migrant workers of their responsibilities to socially distance while in public. Our concern is with how policing will be used to disproportionately target racialized migrant workers in rural communities across Ontario. J4MW has been active in efforts to address police violence enacted against migrant farm workers with respect to racialized policing.

We find it disconcerting that local community members are so concerned about migrant workers’ social distancing while in public, yet do not share the same concerns regarding the lack of protections and accommodations provided by the employer to ensure that migrant farm workers are able to socially distance in their workplace and home. Employers have long been able to get away with this due to the multitude of exclusions that deny migrant farm workers the same rights and protections that resident Ontarions receive.

Actions by OPP and other police agencies, such as ticketing and fining, will have significant economic implications for a population that lives and works below the poverty line. In addition, ticketing migrants may also have dire consequences on their immigration status and the ability of workers to return to Canada to work in the future.

As we are in a crisis, resources should be spent on preventative measures such as ensuring that all communities have access to healthcare and a social safety net, rather than disproportionately targeting and intimidating marginalized communities. Migrant workers are at risk of the spread of this pandemic not because of racial characteristics or cultural differences but because of deplorable working and living conditions that are not subjected to the same levels of scrutiny. We have raised our concerns several times that targeting particular communities will only fan the flames of further hostility, xenophobia, bigotry and racism.

In closing, J4MW will expose any and all forms of racialized policing that targets farm workers in rural Ontario. Whether it is intimidation, harassment, or ticketing, J4MW will undertake numerous steps to protect the welfare of migrant farm workers. Pandemics and crises do not impact all of us equally. As we are seeing almost daily, vulnerable communities are subjected to heightened levels of criminalization and surveillance. This will not be tolerated and we will take any and all steps so that the state and law enforcement do not disproportionately exercise their newly enacted powers on migrants deemed an essential workforce in Ontario yet denied every form of protection that Ontarians enjoy.

For further information please e-mail j4mw.on@gmail.com

For Immediate Release

Justicia for Migrant Workers (J4MW) is outraged that the federal government is providing a blank cheque of $50 million to agricultural employers to cover the costs of housing for temporary foreign workers during their 14-day quarantine when arriving in Canada. In today’s announcement, federal minister of agriculture and agri-food Marie-Claude Bibeau, emphasized that $1500 would be allocated to cover each worker hired by an employer who requires housing support during the quarantine period of 14 days upon arrival in Canada. Meanwhile thousands of migrant workers remain in Mexico and the Caribbean with no ability to return to work in Canada this year. The federal government has not provided a clear response of whether or not income supports such as EI or the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) will be extended to protect these migrants and their families back home. 

Canada has two long-standing temporary foreign worker programs to bring migrant workers to Canada. The low wage agricultural stream and the long standing Seasonal Agricultural Workers program are self regulated programs where employer organizations self govern the operations of the program with very little oversight for the estimated 60,000 migrants who arrive annually to work on Canadian agricultural enterprises. Migrant agricultural workers are tied to a particular employer and denied labour and social mobility akin to a 21st century indentured migration scheme. 

J4MW strongly opposes subsidies to Canada’s agricultural industry while its workforce remains employed under precarious and dangerous conditions. Today’s announcement does nothing to address the deplorable housing conditions that already exist or the power imbalance that exacerbates the vulnerability of migrant farm workers during this pandemic. 

Migrant farm workers pay costs to cover transportation, biometrics, work permits, private health insurance, personal protective equipment and a whole slew of additional deductions. J4MW argues that in reality the nearly 60,000 migrant agricultural workers earn less than minimum wage after deductions, something that is not addressed in today’s federal announcement. Employers are profiting from the precarious nature of agricultural labour while further entrenching poverty and hunger amongst the workers who put food on our table.

Contact J4mw.on@gmail.com or @j4mw (twitter)