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Project to be expanded in the states of Mexico and Puebla in 2010
Partner Organizations:
RED LegalCentro de Apoyo al Trabajador, Mexico
Dignidad Obrera Agricola Migrante
IAVGO, Toronto
NO One is Illegal-Toronto
Workers' Action Centre, Toronto
Last Updated: October 2010, Brampton, ON
Justicia for Migrant Workers (J4MW) is a volunteer driven collective committed to organizing with and for migrant farm workers (irrespective of status), their families and social movements in respective countries of origin.
As an autonomous grass-roots community group, we see ourselves as part of the radicalization of the existing labour movement and fully support workers, principally racialized and excluded migrant workers, in taking leadership in their own struggle as Canada shifts toward controlled labour migration to subsidize its economy.
Justicia/Justice for Migrant Workers” is the recipient of the following awards:
ACLCO's (Association of Community Legal Clinics of Ontario) Community Champion Award (2011)
&
the JS Woodworth Award, March 21, 2011: "For Justicia for Migrant Workers' outstanding commitment to advancing the rights of visible minorities and immigrants, and eliminating racial discrimination"
Come and support migrant farm workers rights to live and be part of our communities!
When: December 13, 2011 at 5:00pm
Where: Norfolk County Administration Building
Council Chambers
50 Colborne St. South
Simcoe, ON
N3Y 4H3
On December 13, 2011, Justicia for Migrant Workers (J4MW) is urging community members and allies to attend this important county council meeting and support the rights of migrant workers to live in our communities. Justicia for Migrant Workers are urging allies to provide deputations in support of the right of migrant workers.
Recently in Norfolk county there has been strong opposition from local community members of Windham Centre to oppose the conversion of a former elementary school into a bunkhouse for migrant workers. Some community members have expressed concern that if migrant workers are to be permitted to live next to them the sheer number of migrants will lead to "a potential increase in crime, pressure on existing water and septic systems, and a decrease in local property values" according to the local newspaper. A resident was quoted in the same story arguing that the migrant workers should not permitted to live at the potential site because its not adjoined to the employer's property. The resident argues "A bunkhouse is supposed to be on the property where (the workers) are employed and where they are under supervision."
The comments are unacceptable and offensive to the dignity of the men and women who grow our food. Furthermore, these disturbing comments expose a trend of racism that appears to be too common in farming areas where the presence of migrant workers is essential to their economy. Migrant workers are welcome to toil in our fields but they are not good enough to live as our neighbours.
J4MW strongly condemns the xenophobic and racist response from the community to the tentative arrival of approximately 40 migrant workers to their community. Rather than attack the workers and deny their presence in Windham centre, J4MW is urging that:
- migrant worker rights to be respected by the community - refocus efforts to ensure that migrant housing is protected through Landlord tenant legislation which currently excludes agricultural operations.
- bunkhouse and other migrant farmworkers housing is open to inspection from migrant rights organization such as J4MW.
- migrant workers rights at work are respected and that steps will be provided to ensure anti-reprisal measures against workers who want to complain relating to working and living conditions.
Newspapers links for references:
Migrant bunkhouse plan for Windham Centre meets with resistance
Simcoe Reformer
Company Defends Plans for Former School
Brantford Expositor
For more information
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Please sign the petition to protect injured workers in Ontario:
In 2010, the WSIB hired private consultants from KPMG to conduct an audit of its claims processes. Instead of staying within its proper scope and assessing the effectiveness and efficiency of the Board's work, KPMG told the WSIB to do a widespread review of its policies and legal framework in order to cut benefits to supposedly overcompensated workers. The WSIB has said it will accept KPMG's recommendations.
WSIB Management's endorsement of KPMG’S recommendations shows an utter disregard for the foundational principles of the workers’ compensation system and undermines the rights and dignity of injured workers in this Province. If KPMG's recommendations are accepted, many injured workers will suffer. Their benefits will be cut shortly after injury, and they will be refused help when they are laid off or their injuries worsen.
Join us in asking the WSIB to protect injured workers in Ontario.
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September 25, 2011 Windsor - Leamington - Chatham - Dresden October 2, 2011 Simcoe - Brantford - Hamilton - TORONTO!!!! |
The caravan will end in Toronto with a march and celebration, featuring a great line up of speakers and performers such as Rosina Kazi from LAL. Join us as we make labour history!!
Coverage of our Sept 4 action:
Pilgrimage to Freedom Caravan 2011
Last year, over 150 migrant workers and their allies made history by marching over 50 Km, an equivalent of 12 hours, from Leamington to Windsor, Ontario demanding justice, respect and dignity for the hundreds of thousands employed under the auspices of Canada's Temporary Foreign Worker Programs. After years of harassment, intimidation and exploitation, migrant workers organized and took to the streets to stand up to these abuses.
The march called the 'Pilgrimage to Freedom: Breaking the Chains of Indentureship' ended in Windsor at the Tower of Freedom that is dedicated to those who travelled the underground railroad. The monument was chosen as the ending point to reflect on the connections of past and the present to slavery, indentureship and statelessness that renders racialized peoples as non-citizens. Over the last year, thousands of people have heard the testimonies and the stories that led to organizing the march. Demands for permanent residency and citizenship status, an end to repatriations and deportations, labour law reform, equal access to social entitlements and an end to the coercive role of recruiters and contractors has inspired many others about the realities faced by migrant workers in Canada.
Migrant workers and members of Justicia for Migrant Workers have continued to organize in rural Ontario and are once again demanding that the chains of indentureship in Canada be broken. This year the pilgrimage continues as a form of a caravan across rural Ontario. Migrant workers and their allies will be recreating the stops of the underground railroad to pay tribute to the important struggles of resistance that we base our struggle upon.
J4MW is requesting the support of community, religious, labour and allied organizations to join us for this year's action. Migrant workers and their allies will be calling community meetings, and organizing meetings across south western Ontario. This year's actions will take place across several communities. If you are interested in further information feel free to contact Justicia for Migrant Workers. Tentative dates for stops on the caravan include
September 4, 2011
Niagara on the Lake, St. Catharines and Niagara Falls
For more details on the Niagara Action click here
September 25, 2011
Windsor, Leamington, Chatham and Dresden
October 2, 2011
Simcoe - Brantford - Hamilton - Toronto
CONTACT INFO
pilgrimage2freedom@gmail.com
Click here for more information
PRESS RELEASE
5 PM EST, April 29, 2011
Contact: j4mw.on@gmail.com
Supreme Court listened, they ruled and they failed!
Migrant workers struggle to continue despite recent
Supreme Court decision!
(Toronto): In the face of the utter contempt by Canada’s highest court, Justicia for Migrant Workers (J4MW) reaffirms its commitment to the struggle for migrant justice in Canada. Today, the Supreme Court failed to address issues raised by Justicia for Migrant Workers relating to agricultural worker self-determination, to ongoing racism in Canadian society and to the inherently exclusionary impact of Canada's immigration laws. The Court's ruling in Fraser reinforces the hyper-exploitative and apartheid-like conditions faced by hundreds of thousands of migrant workers across Canada.
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 continue 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
April 29, 2011
Farm workers have no right to unionize, top court rules
Supreme Court upholds Ontario law that restricts right of farm workers to bargain collectively
By KIRK MAKIN
Globe and Mail Update
The Supreme Court of Canada dealt a harsh blow to the union movement today, ruling in favour of an Ontario law that restricts the right of farm workers to bargain collectively.
The Court said that the constitutional right to free association guarantees that "meaningful" negotiations take place between workers and their employers - but it is not intended to police the mechanics of how those negotiations take place.
"What is protected is associational activity, not a particular process or result," the majority said. "The Ontario legislature is not required to provide a particular form of collective bargaining rights to agricultural workers, in order to secure the effective exercise of their associational rights."
The case was seen as a key test of the constitutional right to free association, a section of the Charter of Rights that has evolved less than many others.
Full article:
Globe and Mail Online
PDF
April 2011
Since 1999, the number of temporary foreign workers from Latin America and the Caribbean employed in Canada's agricultural sector has tripled. Most temporary workers on farms are men, but the number of women is on the rise. In Canada, female temporary foreign workers endure precarious working and living conditions on the farms and face gender-specific challenges. This policy brief documents this new trend in temporary migration and highlights the vulnerabilities of female workers employed in Canada’s agricultural industry.
Justicia for Migrant Workers was recognized at the 15th Annual JS Woodworth Awards, March 21, 2011:
"For Justicia for Migrant Workers' outstanding commitment to advancing the rights of visible minorities and immigrants, and eliminating racial discrimination."
EL CONTRATO
Online courtesy of the NFB: El Contrato follows Teodoro Bello Martinez, a poverty-stricken father of four living in Central Mexico, and several of his countrymen as they make an annual migration to southern Ontario. For eight months of the year the town's population absorbs 4000 migrant labourers who pick tomatoes for conditions and wages no local will accept. Under a well-meaning government program that allows growers to monitor themselves, the opportunity to exploit workers is as ripe as the fruit they pick. Grievances are deflected by a long line of others "back home" who are willing to take their place.
Despite a fear of repercussions, the workers voice their desire for dignity and respect, as much as for better working conditions. El Contrato ends as winter closes in and the Mexicans pledge, not for the first time and possibly not the last, that it's their final season in the north.
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