Last Wednesday, the federal government announced a new time-limited program for a limited number of international students and migrant workers to apply for permanent residency. The details are here.
We strongly condemn Canada’s announced ‘reforms’ to its immigration system. A one-time only, short-term access to permanent residency for 90,000 people is a smokescreen that fails to address Canada’s racist and exclusionary immigration system.
These reforms do nothing to address how the current point system discriminates against both undocumented communities and migrants deemed ‘low skill’ and ‘low wage.’ More troublingly, the reforms do nothing to change the indentureship of thousands of migrant workers in Canada.
In particular, migrant agricultural workers who work under a system of indentured labour will once again see no improvements to their working and living conditions as a result of the continuation of a closed work permit system that binds workers to one employer. Instead, migrant farm workers are put into competition with over 90 other occupations for a measly 30,000 spots, when over 50,000 farm workers have entered Canada on tied work permits during the pandemic alone.
Please read the following letter from migrant agricultural workers at Cervini in Leamington, Ontario. They have given us permission to share their letter and would greatly appreciate your support; please scroll down for ways to take action in solidarity through a phone call or tweet.
We are workers at Cervini greenhouse, writing this complaint on behalf of all migrant workers — St. Lucians, Jamaicans, Guatemalans and Mexicans. Every year we take a risk leaving our loved ones to be on the farm program, being ignorant with no knowledge about what we will sign on contract and our rights. Which makes the employer to take big advantages on us.
Last year, management started using LIME STONE in the greenhouse, which affected many workers, some of their eyes burning, throat burning, rashes on skin and even chest pain. All complaints were reported to supervisor and management which they did nothing about.
On October 24th, 2020 we strike cause we couldn’t bear the pain anymore, all guys stop working and ask the LIMESTONE to be removed which they did. As that result many guys didn’t get requested back because they stand up for their right and health.
This year, February 3rd management spread even more LIME STONE in the greenhouse which starting to affect us beside last year complain, it only shows that the employer will use anything harmful thing and don’t care how it affecting us.
We want the company to STOP using limestone as it is affecting our health. We want the company to listen and make changes in our interest. We demand that no workers are penalized for standing up for their rights. WE WANT RESPECT!
Take Action In Solidarity
J4MW is demanding that the company take immediate steps to protect the rights of workers employed at Cervini Farms. Please contact the names listed below and echo workers’ demands:
Stop using the chemical limestone or any other hazardous chemicals in the workplace;
Provide information to the workers regarding all chemicals and pesticides used in the workplace, including the provision of WHMIS. Listen to the demands of the workers and meet with the workers as a group so that changes are undertaken to protect their health from occupational hazards;
Ensure no workers face reprisals for standing up for respect;
RESPECT the people who put food on our table.
PHONE
Chris Cervini 519-322-1959 President and CEO of Cervini and Lakeside Produce
Sudeshna Nambiar, Chief Operating Officer Lakeside Produce 519-999-4403
Monte McNaughton, Ontario Minister of Labour 416-326-7600
TWEET
You can tweet Cervini/Lakeside Produce and Minister McNaughton: @lakesidepro @montemcnaughton Farmworkers are demanding respect from bosses and ending the use of limestone now! I stand in solidarity with agricultural workers calling for fairness and #racialjustice. #nomorerottentomatoes
When you have taken action, email us at j4mw.on@gmail.com for additional ways to show solidarity.
Hundreds of Black and Brown migrant farm workers are contracting COVID-19 in Canada because of conditions like this. The following video was shared with us by a worker and shows how twelve men are currently crammed into a room separated by flimsy pieces of cardboard. Stay tuned — we’ll be naming this employer soon.
Meanwhile, seasonal agricultural workers coming to Canada from Jamaica have been required to sign a waiverreleasing the Jamaican government from liability if they’re exposed to COVID-19.
How many more exposés are needed before the government takes real action? It’s time for the federal government, Ministry of Labour and public health to show that they value the lives of people of colour from the Global South. They need to take action stop the spread of this pandemic.
Migrant workers are demanding permanent status on arrival in Canada. It’s time to end the differential treatment farm workers face in Canada, including exemptions from employment protections that other workers can access.
Michael Ferguson, Auditor General. Photo: Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press: http://bit.ly/2qgk5U1
On May 16th, Michael Ferguson, the Canadian Auditor General, released a new report on the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP). Much of the media coverage on the report has missed some key points. Some coverage has also risked pitting migrant workers against unemployed and marginalized residents of Canada, particularly Indigenous peoples.
To be clear, migrant workers do not lower wages or steal jobs. Inadequate wages, unemployment and a lack of employment equity occur because of specific state and capitalist policy choices. The absence of standards or enforcement is a policy choice, too. In the case of low-wage streams of the TFWP, governments create policies that allow capitalists (aka employers) to access racialized, unfree and deportable workers from the Majority World. Consequently, workers have weak workplace bargaining power and can’t easily demand better wages and working conditions.
In response to the report and mainstream media coverage, we suggest the following points and questions :
Growth of agricultural streams of the TFWP: While the number of migrant workers in other streams has decreased in recent years, agricultural migrant workers have skyrocketed
e.g. in 2014, there were 47,477 migrant worker positions approved in Primary Agriculture — this is a rough proxy for the number of migrant farm workers. In 2015, there were 53,303 positions approved.
Xenophobia: Media articles that frame migrant workers as stealing jobs from Canadians are dangerous, inaccurate and irresponsible. Worldwide, we have witnessed the alarming effects of fomenting xenophobic sentiment, and particularly in the wake of Brexit and the Trump election.
Decrease in # of ‘low-skilled’ migrant workers: The report cites a massive decrease in the number of ‘low-skilled’ workers following Conservative Party reforms to the TFWP.
What happened to these people? How many were deported, repatriated, are still here, transitioned to permanent residency, sought other forms of immigration status ie student, other occupation, refugee status, etc.?
The role of CIC and CBSA: The report only examines Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC), but neglects to consider the role of Citizenship and Immigration Canada and Canada Border Services Agency, both of which play a key role in the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.
Agricultural exceptionalism: There is no discussion on why there has not been any greater scrutiny of the agriculture sector.
Workers are people: The report treats migrants as mere economic units, rather than human beings with individual and collective rights.
Recruiters: The report speaks to employment recruitment efforts without examining the role of third party recruitment agencies in bringing migrant workers.
Precaritization of jobs: The report provides commentary about the hiring of marginalized people without considering broader trends in the precaritization of employment (i.e. insecure, low-wage, unprotected and informal jobs with limited or no benefits)
Timing and industry: The report does not examine the time spent by migrant workers in Canada. Specifically, the report examines Labour Market Impact Assessment approval without examining the labour attachment of these TFW’s to the industries they worked in.
Four-and-Four: How did the Four-in-and-Four-Out Rule impact migrant workers in low-skill streams of the TFWP? How many were forced to return to their countries of origin, despite the eventual rescinding of this rule?
EI: For those workers who collected EI, how many were able to access special or regular benefits? How many claimed benefits as a result of termination, abuse or job conflict?
Members of the public and advocacy groups have requested EI data on the TFWP for years, only to be told that a breakdown does not exist. The report shows it does exist.
“Risk-based approach”: The report discusses the use of a “risk-based approach” to workplace inspections. What does this look like, how was it developed and how will it be implemented?
Fed-provincial: With respect to federal-provincial agreements on the TFWP, only one province has signed this with the federal government. Migrant workers must be actively included as part of deliberating on these agreements.
Inspections: the numbers of inspections are shocking — 4,900 paper inspections and 173 onsite inspections, only 13 of which have been completed.
Reprisals: What steps will the federal and provincial governments take to protect workers who are terminated or lose jobs because they assisted with investigations?
Exploitation by design: Extreme cases of abuse are of course a problem, but the Auditor General doesn’t comment on how the Temporary Foreign Worker Program invites exploitation by design because of the fundamental structure of the program — driven by employers, with workers tied to their employer.
Performance measurement strategy: The report states that ESDC has now developed a “performance measurement strategy” to assess the impact of the TFWP on the Canadian labour market.
What are the metrics used for this measurement? Will this strategy ensure the rights of all workers are upheld, especially those of migrant workers?
Press Release: Angry migrant workers respond to TFW review by descending on Cambridge MP’s office.
What: Delegation to Constituency office of Bryan May
Where: 534 Hespeler Road, Cambridge
When: September 20, 3:45 pm.
Who: Justice for Migrant Workers (J4MW) is a grassroots advocacy group based in Toronto, Leamington and Mexico City. Composed of migrant workers and allies, we fight for improved rights and protections for workers in Canada’s various labour-migration programs including the Temporary Foreign Worker Program and the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program.
Cambridge, September 20, 2016. Activist group J4MW is organizing an angry delegation to Bryan May’s constituency office today to respond to the deeply flawed Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) review. Members of J4MW will arrive at 3:45pm pm at May’s office which is located at 543 Hespeler Road Unit A4 in Cambridge, Ontario.
Bryan May served as Chair of the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills, Social Development and Persons with Disabilities (HUMA), the committee that oversaw the TFW report.
“The report provides only band-aid solutions to a critical crisis facing our communities. We need to alleviate this crisis by granting permanent residency status for migrant workers,” says Claudia Espinoza, an organizer with Justicia for Migrant Workers (J4MW).
Justicia for Migrant workers is currently undertaking a 30-day caravan across Ontario to highlight the exploitative conditions faced by migrants working predominantly in agriculture. Today the caravan is in Cambridge with the delegation to May’s office and later this evening visiting with local allies in the Kitchener area.
“The Liberals provided a half-baked and extremely vague report that leaves many questions unanswered,” continues Espinoza. “We will continue to mobilize and to organize with migrant workers and their allies toward building a society where migrants are accorded dignity and humanity and we end the apartheid conditions that exists across Canada.”
The Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) is a labour-migration program that brings tens of thousands of Caribbean and Mexican workers annually to toil in fields across Canada. Migrant workers who arrive under this program face many challenges working in Canada, including: having work permits tied to a single employer; being under constant threat of deportation by employers; and ineligibility for permanent residency regardless of how many years they have worked in Canada. See more information at the Harvesting Freedom Caravan website http://www.harvestingfreedom.org
The call for permanent immigration status on landing for migrant workers is the joint position of all major migrant worker groups in Canada, see http://www.migrantrights.ca
“It feels like the government just sells you out to a white man.” – Terron Baptiste, September 9, 2016.
Terron Baptiste, a 30 year-old Trinidadian man in the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program, had his contract terminated at the farm he worked because he refused to do unsafe work that had previously injured him. Although farm workers in Ontario are legally entitled to refuse unsafe work, Terron’s story illustrates the tremendous gap between migrant workers’ rights on paper and in practice.
Terron’s employer routinely cut the hours of workers who he deemed troublemakers in order to bully them into returning back home. Terron described treatment at his work place as “feeling like slavery” and that he and the others were routinely treated “worse than an animals”, being routinely punished for needing water or being injured, given 15-minute lunches and having wages stolen for unexplained reasons.
“It feels like the government just sells you out to a white man” – Terron Baptiste, September 9, 2016. Terron Baptiste, a 30 year old Trinidadian man in the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program, contract was terminated at the farm he worked at because he refused to do unsafe work that had previously injured him. Terron’s employer, Matthew Hebblethwaite routinely cut the hours of workers who he deemed troublemakers, in order to starve them into returning back home. Terron described treatment at his work place as “feeling like slavery” and that he was workers were routinely treated “worse than an animal”, being routinely punished for needing water, given 15 minute lunches and having wages stolen.
“It feels like the government just sells you out to a white man” – Terron Baptiste, September 9, 2016. Terron Baptiste, a 30 year old Trinidadian man in the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program, contract was terminated at the farm he worked at because he refused to do unsafe work that had previously injured him. Terron’s employer, Matthew Hebblethwaite routinely cut the hours of workers who he deemed troublemakers, in order to starve them into returning back home. Terron described treatment at his work place as “feeling like slavery” and that he was workers were routinely treated “worse than an animal”, being routinely punished for needing water, given 15 minute lunches and having wages stolen.
“It feels like the government just sells you out to a white man” – Terron Baptiste, September 9, 2016. Terron Baptiste, a 30 year old Trinidadian man in the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program, contract was terminated at the farm he worked at because he refused to do unsafe work that had previously injured him. Terron’s employer, Matthew Hebblethwaite routinely cut the hours of workers who he deemed troublemakers, in order to starve them into returning back home. Terron described treatment at his work place as “feeling like slavery” and that he was workers were routinely treated “worse than an animal”, being routinely punished for needing water, given 15 minute lunches and having wages stolen.
“It feels like the government just sells you out to a white man” – Terron Baptiste, September 9, 2016. Terron Baptiste, a 30 year old Trinidadian man in the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program, contract was terminated at the farm he worked at because he refused to do unsafe work that had previously injured him. Terron’s employer, Matthew Hebblethwaite routinely cut the hours of workers who he deemed troublemakers, in order to starve them into returning back home. Terron described treatment at his work place as “feeling like slavery” and that he was workers were routinely treated “worse than an animal”, being routinely punished for needing water, given 15 minute lunches and having wages stolen.
“It feels like the government just sells you out to a white man” – Terron Baptiste, September 9, 2016. Terron Baptiste, a 30 year old Trinidadian man in the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program, contract was terminated at the farm he worked at because he refused to do unsafe work that had previously injured him. Terron’s employer, Matthew Hebblethwaite routinely cut the hours of workers who he deemed troublemakers, in order to starve them into returning back home. Terron described treatment at his work place as “feeling like slavery” and that he was workers were routinely treated “worse than an animal”, being routinely punished for needing water, given 15 minute lunches and having wages stolen.
