For decades, seasonal workers from Jamaica, Mexico and other Caribbean countries have poured into rural Canadian communities under Ottawa’s Canadian Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (CSAWP) and the Temporary Foreign Workers program. The CSAWP began as a pilot project in 1966 with 263 Jamaican workers and rapidly expanded to answer Canada’s shrinking agricultural work force.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/01/21/canada-migrant-workers-abuse_n_1210725.html

How did this happen and what is being done by the people most affected? We are asking this question after recently attending the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) in Mexico and having worked on projects surrounding Canadian and International labour laws and immigration issues on over a half-dozen Canadian productions and a documentary to be completed in the fall.

November 2010, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico: at a majestic conference centre in this tourist mecca on Mexico’s Pacific coast, the future of one seventh of the world’s population, the migrant workers, is being discussed at the government-supported GFMD. While not formally part of the UN process, this Forum is aimed at providing a venue for labour-receiving and labour-sending countries to trade strategies around instituting temporary labour migration programs.

The Making of a Global Disposable Workforce | Articles | Canadian Dimension

In what could be the first such suit of its kind, the three argue their constitutional and contractual rights were violated when they were sent packing without cause or explanation.

Migrant workers sue Ottawa and farm for breaching contract, charter rights – The Globe and Mail

(Below in Spanish)

As you may have heard, thousands of Mexican and Guatemalan migrant agriculture workers come to work in Canadian fields under the Seasonal Agriculture Workers Program (SAWP). Their contributions to Canada’s economy are tremendous: they work for up to 15 hours a day, 7 days a week. They pay taxes, Employment Insurance, and contribute to the Canadian Pension Plan. Unfortunately, they are not treated with the dignity or respect that we think every worker in Canada receives. When workers face sickness, injuries in the workplace, or abuse from employers, the Mexican or the Guatemalan Consulates rarely defend them.

In Vancouver, the Mexican Consulate has given harsh “workshops” to agriculture workers telling them that if they complain about their work conditions, cause trouble to their employers, or speak to anybody other than their employers they will easily lose their jobs. In fact, many workers have lost their jobs or have been blacklisted just because they sought help, got sick, or asked questions about their rights. Migrant workers’ labour rights have died in Canadian fields.

This is why for over 20 years the United Food and Commerce Workers (UFCW) and the Agriculture Workers Alliance, (AWA) have been struggling alongside migrant workers to defend their labour rights across Canada. This is why UFCW & the AWA sued the Mexican Consulate of Vancouver at the Labour Board on May 9 of 2011, as its tactics of threatening workers are against Canadian Law. This is why we demonstrated against the blacklisting of workers in front of the Mexican Consulate on October 17, 2011. This is why we are again preparing a new demonstration and hope that you, Canadians of good hearts, lovers of equity and social justice, will join us.

We are inviting you to participate in this demonstration, a Migrant Workers’ Rights Funeral, next Monday, November 14, from 12 (noon) to 1 PM. We will join at the entrance of the Mexican Consulate (710-1177 W Hastings Street) where we will demand the Mexican Consulate stops blacklisting workers and respects Canadian laws!

For more information call us: 778-578-9411 or send us an e-mail to surrey@awa-ata.ca

Please let us know if you can attend and bring your friends.

What: demo in support of migrant agriculture workers and against blacklisting by the Mexican Consulate
When: Monday, November 14, at 12:00 PM(noon)
Where: We will gather at the Mexican Consulate (710-1177 W Hastings Street) from 12 pm (at noon) to 1 PM, carrying a coffin and some crosses “to bury the workers’ rights”.

Did Mexican consulate try to bust a B.C. union of Mexican migrant workers?

L’immigration de travailleurs temporaires va s’amplifier | Victor PichéL’auteur est chercheur associé à la chaire Oppenheimer en droit public international de l’Université McGill. | Opinions

 While the recent decision reflects an ongoing unwillingness in this country to deal with its racist past and present, migrant worker organizing will not be deterred.  J4MW will continue to work with migrant workers to take matters into their own hands to assert their dignity and to assert control over their everyday lives.  

 ”Canada’s temporary foreign worker programs are based on our country’s ongoing legacy of slavery and indentureship” says Adrian Smith, an organizer with Justicia for Migrant Workers. “Canada’s immigration and labour laws systemically deny migrant workers to exert their rights through the traditional legal framework. Workers will take action into their own hands irrespective of what the courts say. We do not need to the Supreme Court to tell us these schemes are racist.  We have history on our side” continues Smith.

Justicia for Migrant Workers continues to demand…

·         Status upon arrival for all temporary foreign workers

·         The elimination of placement and recruitment fees for all migrant workers

·         An appeals mechanism against deportation/ repatriations

·         Reform labour laws to provide better coverage for all TFWP workers

·         Provide migrants equal access to all social entitlements, including EI, CPP, welfare and health care

Contact:  Adrian Smith, 416-505-3232; Evelyn Encalada, 416-707-4357 or Chris Ramsaroop, 647-834-4932   

j4mw.on@gmail.com
http://justicia4migrantworkers.org/
Fax 1 (877) 798-6777

j4mw press release: Supreme Court failed migrant farmworkers – Justice for Migrant Workers

OTTAWA – April 29, 2011 – The Supreme Court of Canada has sided with the Ontario government to deny Ontario farm workers the same rights to join unions to bargain collectively as other workers in Ontario. The decision by the highest court in the land is the latest chapter in a decades-long battle to provide statutory labour rights protection and collective bargaining for Ontario’s 80,000 domestic and migrant agriculture workers.

Rights of Ontario farm workers abandoned by Supreme Court || UFCW Canada – Canada’s Largest Private Sector Union