Migrant farmworkers in Manitoba - the truth about decertification

15 posts / 0 new

Sat, 2009-08-15 00:08

genstrike

Quote:
The well-being of Manitoba's seasonal workers is almost entirely at the whim of their employer. Most earn minimum wage. Despite the long hours there is no overtime pay. Part of the cost of their travel to Canada is deducted from their pay cheques.

The workers pay Employment Insurance and taxes, but are denied access to EI benefits, health care and the other benefits their income taxes help support. Seasonal workers are not covered by Manitoba Health Insurance.

Although some workers have spent the majority of their working life contributing to the Canadian economy -- up to 25 years in some cases -- they are not allowed to become permanent residents or citizens. At any time they may be sent home, if they are injured, the employer determines there is not enough work, or if they talk to a union organizer. Nonetheless, two years ago a group of seasonal workers managed to join a union.Recent media reports state that workers at Mayfair Farms in Portage La Prairie chose to decertify after the long struggle to unionize. What those reports don't talk about is the threats that workers received when they expressed interest in unionizing. At least one strong union supporter was denied return to Mayfair Farms this year.

The day before the decertification vote the Mexican consul -- which has a vested interest in keeping workers in Canada, as their remittances are a major source of national income -- held a closed-door meeting with workers at Mayfair Farms. Early this summer the Mexican consul visited all farms with seasonal agricultural workers in Manitoba letting workers know that should they unionize they would be blacklisted.

Sat, 2009-08-15 00:19

Unionist

Amazing story - thanks for this, genstrike. Let's hope the provincial government and the MFL are paying attention.

Sat, 2009-08-15 01:55

N.Beltov

It's a dirty little story about Canadian capitalism. I would be surprised if the Manitoba NDP regime actually did something substantial about it. Creating an under-class of low wage workers is a subject near and dear to the heart of every blood-sucking capitalist on planet earth. I shit you not.

Rock that boat? Gary Doer? His government couldn't even find the balls to pass anti-scab legislation. And I say that knowing full well those bastard Conservatives would be much worse.

It surprises me a little to see such a story in the WFP. I mean, you'd almost think that right wing rag was pro-worker or something. NOT. I'm scratching my head a little here.

Quote:
To the credit of the current provincial government, agricultural workers are finally included under Employment Standards legislation. This grants them protections such as minimum wage, a day of rest and vacation pay. Workers compensation is also now compulsory for agricultural workers. The new Worker Recruitment Act, the first of its kind in Canada, ensures that anyone hiring migrant workers be registered with the Employment Standards Branch.

This is a good point and underlines the necessity of EVERY worker, unionized or not, having protection that would in practice equal de facto unionization. A number of countries, in Europe I think, have such a regime in labour law. It's not impossible and capitalists still make buckets of money anyway. Then, companies like Wal-Mart, and those who employ farm labourers, can go to hell because a rising tide affects all of them the same way. Except, in this case, the rising tide is better conditions for working people in general.

The numbers in the article, and in the right wing comments attached to the story that have been added so far, are grossly underestimating the number of "guest" or foreign workers in this country. I think the majority of them work in BC but I could be off there. Maybe Ontario as well. Great efforts have been and are being made to supersize these numbers. What better way to drive down the wages of other workers in Canada?

Dirty. Little. Secret.

Sat, 2009-08-15 06:16

Fidel

[url=http://www.ndp.ca/press/temporary-foreign-worker-program-bad-for-economy..., 000 every year.[/url] And some have worked 25 years in Canada. And without access to federally administered UI-EI-O benefits or qualifying for Kanadian citizenship. They should qualify for CPP benefits and health care. It's a page borrowed from Amerikan colonial treatment of Latin Americans. A violation of basic human rights I really hate those two dirty old line parties in Ottawa. Despicable!

Quote:
"If a person is good enough to work here, she is good enough to stay here permanently," says the New Democrat deputy critic for immigration, Don Davies

Dirty! Rrrotten! Old line parties!

Sat, 2009-08-15 09:08

Unionist

N.Beltov wrote:

It surprises me a little to see such a story in the WFP. I mean, you'd almost think that right wing rag was pro-worker or something. NOT. I'm scratching my head a little here.

I was surprised too - although it's an op-ed piece by a CCPA researcher, which explains its progressive tones - still, I'm pleased they printed it at all.

Sat, 2009-08-15 11:07

genstrike

The WFP seems to pick up one article from the CCPA on every major strike or issue like this. They aren't allies of the working class by any stretch, but I think they do try to do it so they look balanced - not that that's particularly difficult when your main competitor is the Winnipeg Sun.

And yeah, I have to agree with NB, I think it is very unlikely that the Manitoba NDP will do something about it, or that the MFL will try to rock the boat (I actually have an interesting story about just how... yeah... the MFL is these days that I would be willing to share by PM).

From what I hear, Manitoba's dirty little secret when it comes to labour laws are how it affects agricultural workers and workers outside of Winnipeg and Brandon in general - it's a lot harder for workers in rural areas to seek help in defending their rights.

Sat, 2009-08-15 11:08

N.Beltov

Oh, OK, op-ed page. They put the articles by Gwynn Dyer, Frances Russell, et al on that page. (When it's not cluttered up with pieces from the Fraser Institute and xenophobic Lou Dobb-like commentators on foreign policy, that is.) That makes a little more sense.

Sat, 2009-08-15 11:13

genstrike

yeah, it was in their "View from the West" section, I think

Sat, 2009-08-15 12:32

N.Beltov

I just don't see where the support for workers who don't even have the right to vote is going to come from within the Manitoba NDP. But the latter deserves credit, as the author of the CCPA piece points out, for changing the Employment Standards legislation last June. It opened the door for further improvements.

And, as much as I like to crap on the NDP like any good lefty, it's a Canadian dirty little secret and not restricted to the province of Manitoba. A breakdown by province might be useful, as one over time would be as well, to reveal the TRENDS in this ongoing process.

Sat, 2009-08-15 16:04

#10

Farmpunk

The article says there are 400 migrant workers in Manitoba annually? Surely there are more than that. There's at least 20 thousand seaonal migrant workers in Ontario.

They don't have medical coverage? That's not the case in Ontario. And from what I've been told, Mexican workers can collect old age pension. They pay into the system and should have every right to benefit.

I'm not aware that Mexican workers remit any of their earnings to the Mexican gov. Then again, I don't know all the details, either. I do know that the Jamacian gov takes a significant portion of their workers earnings. The Mexican government facilitates the "exchange" of workers, I assume, because of the cash it brings into the country.

There are no doubt some truly rotten working conditions for migrant farm workers across the country. I can only speak from personal experience in my part of the world, and it's not very nice. But it's the invisibility of the workers which bothers me.

It's really only a "dirty little secret" to Ontarians who never drive through SWOnt in the spring-summer-fall. I repeatedly point out to people that buy Ontario Fresh produce that it is undoubtedly coming to them - cheaply - via the work of migrant labourers. I get puzzled looks in return or shrugs.

I know of a factory in St Catherine's, or Welland, an ag canning factory which is staffed entirely by Mexican women. There are migrant workers doing landscaping and likely construction. Singling out farmers for taking advantage of these types of programs seems very urban, to me.

Sat, 2009-08-15 17:24

#11

genstrike

Farmpunk wrote:

I know of a factory in St Catherine's, or Welland, an ag canning factory which is staffed entirely by Mexican women. There are migrant workers doing landscaping and likely construction. Singling out farmers for taking advantage of these types of programs seems very urban, to me.

Who is "singling out" anyone? the fact of the matter is that we're dealing with a union-busting employer who expoits migrant workers by paying minimum wage and no overtime pay. He was allowed to do this because of a black hole in labour law relating to the agricultural industry. This is a big issue in Manitoba, and there are some community groups lining up to support these workers. I don't think we're singling anyone out because we're a bunch of elitist urbanites here, we're just talking about an issue.

When Ruby Dhalla's nanny issue came to the forefront, no one complained that "singling her out" was very "rural".

Sat, 2009-08-15 18:43

#12

Farmpunk

Probably because Dhalla was urban, and maybe because urbanistas aren't "seeing" exploited migrant workers in fields other than agricultural. Take the same journalist and tour him\her through the country - where everyone knows the conservative farmers exist - and suddenly the fish out of water sees all kinds of gross inequities.

But, yes, it likely was the wrong phrase. That particular farming operation has been a regular feature in Manitoba ag-labour stories and deserves to be highlighted.

Sat, 2009-08-15 19:55

#13

George Victor

farmpunk:

"The article says there are 400 migrant workers in Manitoba annually? Surely there are more than that. There's at least 20 thousand seaonal migrant workers in Ontario.

I think, mate, that the Mennonites of Manitoba will likely take up the slack. In Ontario, Mennonite labour is mostly available up in the not-so-fertile belt to the north, the land is too costly for their residence down in your neck of the woods.

Sat, 2009-08-15 20:40

#14

Farmpunk

George, you need to travel down south more often if you don't think there are massive German and spanish speaking gypsy\mennonites in my part of SWOnt. Eat a Bick's pickle lately?

Sat, 2009-08-15 21:05

#15

George Victor

And despite this, many thousands more needed in Ontario from Mexico. So! My niece's husband employs two or three eachc summer up Peterborough way. No "homegrown" ag labour there at all.

Always glad to add to my learning curve, mate.(And yes, I stick with Bick's) And, of course, these people should be offered citizenship.

But maybe homegrown labour in Manitoba largely suffices? No Bick's? (And too many mosquitoes as I recall).