Presentation from Justicia for Migrant Workers-B.C.

Presentation
"Expose and oppose the exploitation of migrant, immigrant and undocumented workers in Canada. Building genuine solidarity with immigrant and migrant workers."
May Day 2007 Organizing Committee Forum
April 11, 2007

1. The Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program

What is the SAWP?

1. The SAWP was started in 1966 in Ontario
2. Now covers most of Canada
3. In BC in 2004
4. Caribbean, Mexico and Guatemala
5. Allows workers to come on contracts of up to 8 months
6. Workers required to have families in the country of origin, and low literacy
7. Workers tied to one employer
8. Workers required to work for minimum wage, often irregular hours, no overtime, no holiday pay, sometimes 6 or 7 days a week, 12 hours a day. Sometimes only a few hours a week – on low season.
9. Workers have no representation – the consulate protects the interest of employers and the Mexican government.

Why do employers participate in the SAWP?

1. Agricultural workers have been historically the most vulnerable and exploited in Canada
2. Governments have continuously favoured employers by reducing labour standards for farm workers, and being soft on enforcement
3. A sub contractor system has evolved making easier for farm and greenhouse owners to avoid responsibility, and for workers to be exploited. The sub contractor industry is highly unregulated and there are many unscrupulous individuals involved.
4. Some employers prefer the SAWP to the subcontractor system because it offers them more direct control over the workers and a reliable and renewable supply of hardworking and eager workers. It also allows larger operations to make different groups of workers compete against each other. Ie Mexicans against south Asians.
5. Unfortunately Canadian society has always relied on vulnerable and exploited labour to supply it’s food and keep it’s agricultural industry competitive. This trend is continued in the expansion of the SAWP, and the same logic is being exported to other sectors of the economy as TWP’s are expanded to fill what the corporations call a labour shortage.

The SAWP as part of temporary worker programs:

-The SAWP is only part of a growing trend towards expansion of temporary or guest worker programs:

1. Corporate Canada tells us that there is a chronic labour shortage. They have demanded the expansion of TWP’s and the Harper government has responded quickly.
2. Is there a labour shortage? Depends how you look at it. Of course everyone knows and statistics show that temporary, part time, contract, and precarious labour is the norm these days.
3. So while technically speaking unemployment might be low, most of the new jobs offer little of the security of the old days, the cradle to the grave jobs that my grand parents’ generation took for granted.
4. In order to access TWP’s employers have to prove that they can’t find local workers. But even if a precariously employed Canadian sees the job ads, often hidden in the classifieds, few could contemplate working in these conditions. For example a tiny job ad for a greenhouse, coming out only once in an obscure community newspaper might read “looking for greenhouse workers, arduous labour, minimum wage, 12 hours a day, 6 days a week.” And of course, no overtime, no holidays, and no security. Given that no one could live in Vancouver independently working full time at minimum wage, much less support a family, it is no surprise that few local workers would reply to the add.
5. The exception of course are vulnerable immigrant communities that are preyed upon by sleazy subcontractors.
6. But the claim of a labour shortage has been challenged also in the construction industry. For example in a recent bridge project a Canadian trade union submitted a list of hundreds of unemployed skilled union members to the employer. The employer, and transnational company, ignored the list, claimed it could not find local labour and petitioned the government for temporary foreign workers.
7. What effect is this having in society?
1. When corporations are allowed to lower standards for some workers, the entire working class suffers.
2. Workers increasingly compete with each other, and with vulnerable foreign workers, while standards, salaries and benefits and other rights working class people have fought for are eroded.
3. For the corporations of course it’s great – reduced labour costs, a more flexible work force, and increased profit margins.
8. An example of the problems of TWP’s was recently seen in the RAV line construction. The BC Building and Construction Trades Council found temporary migrant workers from Latin America working for an Italian sub contractor for less that $5 and hour, when local workers would get $24 to $30 for the same job.

2. So what can we do?

As Justicia we go out to the farms and places where SAWP workers live and meet with them. Among the things we do is bring them information on their rights and let them now that that they have allies in the community. Once workers know they have rights and there are people who will support them they are more likely to stand up to exploitation and abuse, and take steps towards self organization.

Justicia also responds to workers concerns on things such as health, safety, relations with employers and the consulate. We encourage dialogue between the workers so that they may decide on courses of action to take, and we support their requests to access services that we take for granted, such as parental benefits, or WCB claims. For a worker with no knowledge of English whatsoever, no access to computers, and a low level of literacy it is a huge challenge to access even the simplest services, such as going to a walk in clinic on their own.

In our work we have seen and dealt with several serious problems that are typical of the SAWP.

For example in Purewall farms in Pitt Meadows a couple of years ago, workers were housed in slum like conditions, forced to cook in open air stoves – with the weather we have here in Canada! They were also with very limited access to hot water, in crammed and cold accommodations.

We facilitated meeting between the workers, documented their situation, contacted media and politicians.

Eventually the workers stopped working and most decided to go back to Mexico.

A few months latter in Golden Eagle farms, owned by the Aquilini’s, the owners of the Vancouver Canucks, workers were suffering under terrible working conditions. They complained of being stuffed in vans like cattle, of being forced to eat and go to the bathroom in the open air in the middle of winter.

With no clean water or cleaning facilities, and with the cold and wet weather some workers were getting very sick.

They also told us that the employer did not want to provide proper outdoor gear, and supervisors were also violent and abusive. The list of problems was long.

So the workers decided to write a letter to the media outlining their problems and asking for help, and we agreed to translate the letter.

When the letter was made public many media and local politicians from the NDP took notice and the employer and consulate were furious. The president of the farm, Murray Driediger, yelled at and threatened us. The consulate teamed up with the boss to try to find the troublemaker workers, isolate them, and intimidate them. One of the most outspoken of the workers, Audi Vega, decided to return to Mexico on his own, tired of all the abuse. Another one was given a few hours notice that he would be sent back and he decided to flee the farm and claim refugee status.

We have also seen serious problems with health and safety. The Howellings green house in Delta was one of the first places to bring SAWP workers. From what the workers have told us they seem to have a very unsafe workplace, with old and run down gear. Last year a worker, Oscar had a nasty accident on the job when a broken down cart went off its rails, falling on him and pinning him down. The employer then not only broke the law by not reporting the accident to WCB, but also took Oscar to a friendly doctor who just gave the worker some pills and told him he was fine. But the pain got worse and eventually Oscar’s friends took him to the hospital were x-rays showed he had a broken rib. We helped him fill his WCB claim and for the reminder of his stay in Canada he fought with our help and that of the BC Federation of Labour to get compensation for his accident.

This is just one example, there have been other similar cases. Sometimes when a worker falls seriously sick the response of the boss and the consulate is to try to send them back to Mexico as soon as possible. SAWP workers in BC have a limited private health insurance, and of course they can’t afford to pay for some treatments, and the Mexican consulate would rather ship them home that help with the costs.

In theory SAWP workers in BC should be eligible for MSP after a 3 month waiting period. But in reality since neither their bosses or consulate fill the necessary forms the workers are denied this coverage. By the way BC is the only province that does this, in Ontario SAWP workers are waived the waiting periods and are covered by provincial health care.

Anyway these are just some of the problems that we’ve seen, there are many more.

3. So what do we want?

Well there are several changes that we would like to see that would be a good start.

First we demand that workers have access to regularization of their status so that they can stay here if they want, bring their families and have access to the opportunities this society has to offer. Some SAWP workers have been coming to Canada for years and yet they are denied the right ever settle here.

We also demand that workers be given access to social services to which they are entitled to – these include WCB, medical services, employment standards and human rights complaints systems, etc. The government claims that anyone can access these services but this is not true for SAWP workers. They don’t speak English, many of them have low levels of literacy, they tend to be geographically isolated and few know how to operate within the Canadian system. And of course they don’t have internet.

SAWP workers deserve to be treated with equality, respect and dignity. And this applies of course to all farm workers. We demand the government restore full protection under the Employment Standards Act to all agricultural workers without exception. But that’s not enough. The government must provide the necessary enforcement to make sure workers are protected, and must take meaningful action against rogue employers.

We support the campaign to raise the minimum wage to $10 and hour – this would be a huge benefit for SAWP workers. It’s not enough, but it’s a start.

End the arbitrary repatriations. If a worker complains, if he or she gets sick, or if they are injured on the job, they are often put on the next plane home. Workers live and work under the stress of knowing this. Repatriations can bring tremendous hardship on the worker and his or her family and are simply immoral and unacceptable.

And finally we would like to see more solidarity with SAWP workers and farm workers in general. Agricultural workers, and specially SAWP workers are among the most marginalized and exploited here and everywhere. This society, its governments and even organized labour, have always tended to neglect farm workers, treating those who grow our food as second class human beings who deserve less rights that everyone else. This has to stop. If a corporation, industry or economic model relies on exploitation to succeed, then it has to change or disappear. And we all should support the struggles of migrant workers and all agricultural workers to organize themselves, defend their rights and make this a more fair and just society.