Migrant workers gather at historic Toronto forum

More than 300 migrant agriculture workers – the largest gathering ever of migrant workers in Canada – travelled to Toronto on June 20 to participate in No Rights, No Rules: Migrant Workers in a Globalized World — an international forum on the challenges, obstacles and exploitation faced by migrant and temporary workers in Canada.

The forum was hosted by UFCW Canada and community partners at the University of Toronto – just a block away from the Ontario legislature, where the McGuinty government continues to deny agriculture workers in Ontario the right to unionize.

Just before the forum began the workers assembled shoulder to shoulder, as a vast human billboard, holding signs in English and Spanish declaring “I’m a father too!” —   putting a face to an exploited workforce that most Canadians aren’t aware of.
Minutes later the migrant workers joined hundreds of other participants and community activists inside the University  of Toronto’s  Great Hall, where migrant worker panelists recounted the abuse and discrimination they face evey day under the federal governemnt’s temporary foreign worker programs.
But the Father’s Day forum was also about solutions, empowerment and continued solidarity with migrant and temporary  workers in Canada.

“As we move forward and reach out today, we pledge our commitment to continue the work that we do,“ said National President Wayne Hanley in his welcoming remarks. “It is truly a privilege to see the faces of so many fathers, and mothers, with the determination to ensure that a human being is treated as such, and that the era of exploitation and abuse of the fundamental rights of migrant workers comes to a rapid end, and it all starts here today.”

The international forum was held just a week before the G20 Summit in Toronto — in part to raise awareness about the G20 globalization agenda to push down workers rights across all borders.

One participant who couldn’t cross the border was Max Correa, the General Secretary of Central Campesina Cardenista (CCC)  – one of Mexico’s largest farm workers organizations.  Brother Correa had been scheduled as a panelist but he could not attend due to delays in processing his visa. Instead he participated via video — sharing with the audience the history of struggle of everyday workers and peasants in Mexico.

Along with the CCC, other forum coalition partners included the Latin American Trade Unionists Coalition (LATUC), the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL), Migrante Canada, Caregivers Action Centre, the Workers Action Centre, No One is Illegal, the Mennonite New Life Centre, and SAME (Students Against Migrant Exploitation).

“This event has been a call that the coalition for change moves forward,” said Naveen Mehta, UFCW Canada’s Director of Human Rights. “We must continue to move together as activists, advocates and trade unionists until migrant and temporary foreign workers in Canada have the justice and equality they rightfully and legally deserve.”

Migrant workers protest at Canada’s embassy in Mexico

Workers call for stop to exploitation of migrant workers on Canadian farms under federal government’s Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Under the flags of the Agriculture Workers Alliance, more than 300 Mexican migrant farm workers descended on the Canadian embassy in Mexico City on June 15, to denounce their working and living conditions as migrant agriculture workers in Canada under the federal government’s Seasonal Agriculture Workers Program (SAWP).

The protest parade started at the Tamayo Museum, marched down Reforma Avenue and arrived at the front steps of the Canadian embassy, where the workers demanded a complete reform of SAWP which currently leaves workers vulnerable to abuse, exploitation and unsafe living and working conditions.

The peaceful protest brought together both current and veteran members of SAWP fields who sang on the steps of the embassy together – No more fear, no more discrimination: equality and justice for migrant workers.  

“In Canada the government doesn’t listen. Neither does the consulate. They pretend the problems with SAWP don’t exist, said a worker at the Mexico City protest. “But the abuse is real and we know it”.

Under SAWP, migrant agriculture workers are typically paid minimum wage and are often subject to working and housing conditions that Canadian residents would find intolerable. SAWP workers have historically been hesitant to report dangerous working conditions or hostile employers for fear of being sent home or blacklisted from returning the next season.

“Canada says SAWP is a ‘model’ program but the model is broken,” says Andrea Galvez, co-ordinator of the Agriculture Workers Alliance (AWA) in Quebec, who joined the workers in Mexico City for the protest. “These workers have come from all over Mexico today to tell the real story about SAWP and the changes needed to make it a fair system for everyone.”

While protest songs and traditional music filled the air, the protesters distributed pamphlets describing those changes: the right to have a voice in negotiating their working and living conditions; stepped up enforcement of health and safety regulations; respecting all the human and labour rights that every worker in Canada is guaranteed under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, including the right to unionize.

Every year more than 15,000 Mexican workers come to Canada under SAWP. For three decades UFCW Canada has led the campaign for justice for migrant and domestic agriculture workers in Canada. In partnership with the Agriculture Workers Alliance (AWA), UFCW Canada operates ten AWA worker support centres across Canada.