Reflections on Migrant Labourer Rights
Posted: January 9, 2013
Categories: Food in the News
As the growing season approaches, it is necessary to consider the issues and perspectives surrounding the topic of farm labour. Sustain Ontario intern Jon Gowing has written a reflection on the food security & migrant labour panel which he attended at the Ryerson University Social Justice Week in October 2012. The event included speeches from two survivors of the February car crash in Hampstead and marked the launch of the international Right2Stay campaign.
Lauren Baker of the Toronto Food Policy Council also spoke at this event. You can listen to her lecture on a food systems approach to social justice in this video. Jon’s reflection on the panel appears below the video.
Canada’s Agricultural Workforce and the Temporary Foreign Worker Program
By Jon Gowing
Listening to Javier Alba Medina and Juan Jose Ariza Mejia, two of the three survivors of last February’s Hampstead accident, which took the lives of eleven migrant workers, retell the horrific event in detail at the Ryerson Social Justice conference last October brought to life a key aspect of Ontario’s food system that is rarely discussed: the relationship between Canada’s agricultural workforce and human rights. It is a topic that needs to be given more attention if we are to reach a secure and sustainable food system. It is easy to focus on the horror stories, like that of Javier and Juan, but perhaps what we really should be asking is what these stories of exploitation and vulnerability say about our food system at large? And how may we begin to change it?
Javier and Juan, both once young and fit, entered the room and slowly approached the front of the audience supported by canes and grimacing in pain. The image of these two men speaks to a wider problem of Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP). While perhaps Canada’s migration policies were never quite robust and ‘fit’ it is becoming apparent that these policies, especially with the addition of the TFWP, are taking a turn for the worse.
There are, of course, a number of places to begin when investigating the pitfalls of the TFWP. Perhaps its most notable feature is the way it enforces the vulnerability of migrant workers. First, private businesses are responsible for determining how many workers they require and apply to host them every year through the TFWP. This is significant change from the long-standing Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP) that, while still problematic, is at least a bilateral agreement between governments. The TFWP program began in the early 2000s and is expanding at an exponential rate. This means that the Canadian government is not responsible for the identification and admission of workers, but instead encourages businesses to make these estimates. Once workers have been admitted, it remains the responsibility of the employer to provide access to their health card, adequate housing, and proper work safety as well as a de facto responsibility to ensure workers can get to grocery stores and telephones to call home. The employer can also terminate employment at any time and thus the workers’ status in the country.
This puts workers in a vulnerable situation. In the event that migrant workers demand better wages and working/living conditions they can simply be shut down and sent back to their country. Guest speaker Chris Ramsaroop demonstrated this reality when he explained that the rate of deportation among migrant workers has significantly increased in recent years. Being deported not only diminishes migrant workers from gaining immigrant status, but also limits their chances of being allowed to participate in the program ever again.
Another loophole in the system has to do with WSIB claims. If a worker is injured, they presumably have access to insurance through WSIB claims. These claims will only compensate workers if they are no longer able to perform their previous tasks. If, however, they are deemed fit to perform other reasonably appropriate jobs within Canada, they will receive no “loss of earning” benefits. The problem with deeming workers ‘fit’ is that in most instances migrant workers are prohibited from working other jobs in Canada due to their exclusive work permits with one employer. Often this means that these injured workers must return to their countries of origin where the jobs that they are supposedly ‘fit’ for do not exist, and where they may not receive proper health benefits.
This is a fairly grim portrayal of Canada’s TFWP, one which builds on the notion that this program assumes the vulnerability of a workforce that ultimately leads to low wages and poor living/working conditions; however, this portrayal should not take away from the bigger picture of a troubled food system.
While we may have heard horror stories of workers coming to Canada only to live in shacks and receive below minimum wage for months at a time under the supervision of an abusive employer, there are some things that need to be considered before we start condemning all farmers who use a migrant labour force. First, farming is a dirty and exhausting business. It is a business that quite literally lives by the expression of ‘make hay while the sun shines.’ I spent a few summers in my late teens working on a small family owned and operated farm in Gananoque, and though I was only required to work 40 hours a week I know I could have worked up to 70 hours if I needed the money badly enough and if my boss had the money to pay me. Unfortunately, he did not have the funds and those extra 30 hours he did on his own or with the help of his wife.
Secondly, the farming culture can create a sense of solidarity amongst labourers. My personal experiences with agriculture involved a stint working on a farm in Portugal as part of Willing Workers On Organic Farms (WWOOF) where the living conditions were by no means comfortable; we slept and ate in small caravans, our toilet was a wheelbarrow, and our shower was a hose encapsulated by bamboo walls. For most people this would not be an ideal living situation, but for most people farming is not an ideal occupation. It is tough work but it can be rewarding. The conditions may be harsh at times but it is these shared experiences that can create unity amongst people who are partaking in this necessary job. I understand that my experience in Portugal working on a farm with other privileged travelers is much different from migrant workers labouring in a field so that they can support their families, but I do believe the unity I felt amongst my fellow WWOOFers back in Portugal was the same unity that was felt amongst the 14 Hampstead migrant workers. This was made clear by the tears that were shed by both Javier and Juan as they spoke sincerely of their deceased co-workers.
It is true that migrant workers are vulnerable to low wages and poor working and living conditions, and it is true that there are some businesses that will take advantage of that. It is also true that there are just as many farmers who are more than willing to pay a worker what they’re worth but the reality is that most farmers simply cannot afford to do so without putting themselves out of business. We must not focus solely on the power dynamic between employer and employee. It is equally important to question why farmers are often put in these compromising positions to begin with. In doing so, we will have a better grasp on the overall dynamic between migrant workers, farm owners, and government policies and work towards figuring out a way that agricultural workers, whether they are migrant workers or farm owners, can receive better benefits and wages.