Guatemalan Migrant Workers Deserve our Respect

No more Injustice and Oppression against Migrants!
Would you be willing to waive your human rights to get a job that most Canadians don’t want?

That’s what 4,000 Guatemalan men and women are asked to do when they come to work in the Canadian agriculture industry.

Before they’re allowed to make our food, Guatemalan migrant workers have to sign a contract that orders them to:

• “During your stay in Canada, you should only do the activities you are assigned to and should not distract yourself with any group or association”
• “Reasons to exclude you from the program that will force you to pay your plane ticket:  alcoholism, theft, lack of respect and sexual relations”
• “Upon arrival at the farm, the employer will keep your passport for the duration of your stay in Canada”
• “Use deodorant before the flight and every day you stay in Canada”
• “Beware of having relations with women”
• “In case you needed to go back to Guatemala before ending your contract, you will have to prove that you have a good reason.  Even then, the employer can choose whether to hire you the next season”
• “You should keep your hair short to avoid lice”
  
   

The dehumanizing terms of this contract were drafted by the Canadian agri-business employer group FERME and – more shockingly – the International Organization for Migration – an intergovernmental agency dedicated to “promoting humane and orderly migration for the benefit of all.”
Guatemalan migrant workers seal the contract with a $400.00 (CDN) deposit – which is the equivalent to 17% of the average annual income for Guatemalans.
Can you imagine losing nine weeks of pay for demanding to be treated like a human being?
Stop the Injustice Of Migrant Contracts! CLICK HERE to send a quick protest letter to the politicians, bureaucrats and employers who are forcing these inhumane conditions on the people who make our food.
It only takes 30 seconds and it makes a real difference!

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.

SAME in Simcoe

The Students Against Migrant Exploitation (SAME) along with youth volunteers from UFCW Canada Local 1977 are at the AWA Simcoe Centre today.

The SAME students are there as part of their outreach caravan that kicked off this week to promote the AWA to community members and agriculture workers in general in the Niagara and Simcoe regions. The youth group from Local 1977 visit the centre to get a first hand idea about the issues surrounding agriculture workers in Canada.

Both groups are an extension of the efforts of UFCW Canada and the AWA team to get university students and high school students involved in social justice issues and specially about migrant agriculture workers.

We will continue updating this story over the weekend with some of the important work these groups of students are providing the AWA centres of Simcoe and Virgil.

Ag Worker in Critical Condition: UPDATE

For those following this story, we are happy to report that our brother Trinidad  Mendieta is now conscious after a couple of days in comma. 

Staff from the AWA Team had the opportunity to talk to family members about the condition of Mr. Mendieta yesteday afternoon and to provide support and advise about the rigths of Mr. Mendieta under his circumstances. The main concern for Mr. Mendieta's family was his legal situation in Canada now that he is not able to work again.

One of his family members expressed that "if he suffered the accident here, then he must be looked after and treated here [in Canada]."

We here at the AWA and UFCW Canada agreed and we will continue to work in order that his needs are met.

Mr. Mendieta's family have as one would imagine in this circumstances a lot of unanswer questions. Yet, all of them are positive and they are happy to report the support of the community of migrant workers who know Mr. Mendieta and many community members.

Mr. Mendieta's family said that his employer is in the process of setting an account so people can make donations to Mr. Mendieta's family back in Mexico.

The AWA team will continue to update everyone on this case as more information comes available.