Gustavo Mejicanos of the Agricultural Workers Alliance on labour issues for Manitoba farm workers. Download

Thomas Novak of St. Ignatius church on Canada’s temporary foreign worker programs. Download

Thanks very much to Mud and Water Radio for airing these important interviews! Mud and Water Radio runs weekly and broadcasts about current affairs and the arts. You can listen in on Mondays at 5:30 pm CST on CKUW 95.9 FM, or download their interviews off their website – there’s lots of other interesting interviews to listen to. The radio program is run by folks behind the Mud and Water online magazine.

I’m preparing for another Migrant Trail. Yearly since 2006, I have embarked on this 75 mile, seven day journey through the desert borderlands of Sonora and Arizona called “Migrant Trail: We Walk for Life.” We are a diverse group of walkers, more than 60 people from around the U.S., Canada and Mexico who come together to remember people who have died in the Mexico-U.S. borderlands and those who continue to come.  In our walking we feel a little of the inhumanity of the crossing and recognize the tragedy of death occurring on the land.

Each morning we wake around 5 am to disassemble camp and prepare for our daily pilgrimage. We gather in a circle to prepare our bodies, minds and spirits for walking two-by-two on the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge and one-by-one on the fast moving highways. We add precious water to our bottles every 1.5 miles and stop for a snack and check-in every 3 miles. This continues for the 8-16 miles that we walk each day until we arrive to Tucson. The mechanics of the trail are significant to me as an organizer but the reasons why we walk this trail are most important.

The life-sucking forces of global capitalism found in North American free trade policies displace people. Subsidence farmers in Mexico, Central America and many parts of the world cannot survive on the land in an environment of “free trade.” Factory workers earn minimal amounts making it difficult to feed their families or dream of a stable future. The pull factors of available jobs in the U.S. paying considerably more than they are able to earn in Latin America push people from their homes in pursuit of survival. Furthermore, U.S. security policy in the borderlands has created a funnel effect, impelling undocumented immigrants to cross in the desolate desert where water is scarce. Each year hundreds of migrants die in Arizona. People, who want desperately to live, instead find death in my backyard.

On the Trail, I am compelled to remember these persistent people who have crossed and those who continue to come. I walk to remember individuals like Leticia Rodriguez-Coria age 37 from Mexico who died on October 9, 2010 from  undetermined causes (For more information on migrant deaths in the desert, please see  derechoshumanosaz.net). I pray that her family may feel some comfort and that this horrendous place of death may be transformed. I pray that I, as a citizen of the U.S., may feel the weight of death so that I can advocate for change and for U.S. policies that humanize.

I am grateful for the support that the Migrant Worker Solidarity Network offers as a sponsor of the Migrant Trail this year. Connecting the realities of migrant workers across North America is a vital component of cross border solidarity.

Jodi Read
Tucson, AZ
May 25, 2011

The Winnipeg Free Press recently ran an article on the impact of the flood on migrant workers in the province; Jennifer deGroot, a member of the Migrant Worker Solidarity Network, had her letter to the editor published as Letter of the Day in the Winnipeg Free Press about the challenges these workers face in Canada and the need for them to be covered by any provincial flood compensation scheme. You can find the text of the letter below.

Carol Sanders’ May 18 article, Vegetable pickers might not have to go home, highlights the precarious position of seasonal migrant farm workers in Manitoba, particularly those in the flood zone.

Many Manitobans are unaware that 400-500 workers come from Mexico to Manitoba each growing season to perform demanding physical labour that provides us with vegetables for our tables. Some of these workers have been returning to Manitoba for more than 20 years. Despite their contribution to society, they do not have the option of becoming permanent residents or citizens.

They are also denied provincial health-care coverage. Unlike Saskatchewan and Ontario, the Manitoba government refuses to provide these workers access to health-care coverage. Instead, the workers must rely on the whims of a private insurance provider for their health needs.

The contracts that these workers signed when they came to Canada guarantee them 40 hours of work per week. However, the current flooding has left migrant farm workers uncertain about their income. The Manitoba government has assured farm operators of compensation, giving them hope that they may be able to continue their business tomorrow.

We hope that the compensation packages will not overlook the most vulnerable victims of the 2011 flood and will ensure that migrant farm workers receive compensation for any wages lost so they can continue to provide for their young families at home.

JENNIFER deGROOT

Migrant Workers Solidarity Network

From the CBC.ca article:

A Canadian union accuses Mexican consular officials in Vancouver of blacklisting and harassing Mexican farm workers who voted in favour of forming a union at two Surrey, B.C., farms.

The United Food and Commercial Workers union told a Vancouver news conference Tuesday it has filed complaints about the alleged activities with the B.C. Labour Relations Board.

The complaints suggest the consulate informed officials in Mexico of the names of migrant workers who supported the union drive, and those workers were refused entry to Canada or were not allowed to return to the unionized work sites.

Leaked consular documents show that the pro-union workers were blocked by Mexican officials from returning to Canada this season, said UFCW national president Wayne Hanley.

Consulate denies allegations

The consulate is also intimidating workers already in Canada, he said.

“Workers have wanted to join the union and the consulate has gone to the workplace and threatened workers with being sent back to Mexico,” said Hanley.

Hanley said he believes the Mexican government is under pressure from employers to ensure a cheap supply of labour.

“The Mexican government, I think, is trying to protect its turf in the agricultural sector and the migrant workers that come to Canada each year,” he said.

Hanley said the workers were employed at Floralia Farms and Sidhu Nurseries, where employees voted to certify a union.

In a brief telephone interview with CBC News, a spokesman for the Mexican consulate in Vancouver denied the union’s claims and said officials had heard nothing yet from the B.C. Labour Relations Board about the union’s complaints.

UPDATE: You can find more information about the report in this news article at ScienceDaily; the UFCW has also issued a press release on these reports.

From the WFP/Canadian Press article:

Many migrant farm workers who come to Canada every year are not given proper safety training, live in hot and cramped quarters, have no access to clean water and see their health suffer as a result, say two new research papers.

Researchers found that many workers from Mexico, Jamaica, the Philippines and other countries develop ailments linked to the gruelling work they do on Canadian farms, largely in British Columbia and Ontario.

The authors say in their papers, published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, that workers suffer from persistent back pain, eye and skin disorders and mental health problems due to a combination of factors.

Jenna Hennebry, who co-wrote one of the papers, said overcrowded housing, the rigours of 12-hour days, lack of knowledge of their right to health care and the stress of being away from families for much of the year take a heavy toll on workers.

Still, many of those who develop health problems don’t seek care because they either don’t know they are entitled to it, work too much to get to a clinic or fear losing their job.

“One of the most disturbing things we found were the barriers to accessing health care and compensation,” said Hennebry, a social scientist with the International Migration Research Centre at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ont.

“Forty-five per cent of those surveyed indicated they were fearful of reporting concerns to employers.”

Hennebry surveyed about 600 migrant workers in Ontario from 2007 to 2009, finding a number of them experienced some type of health ailment linked to their farm work in Canada.

She said most complained of back pains, symptoms linked to gastro-intestinal disorders, heat exhaustion, pesticide exposure or food- or water-borne disease.

More than 85 per cent said they did repetitive movements all day, likely causing musculoskeletal injuries, while almost 80 per cent said they worked in extreme heat.

The majority of those surveyed said they worked many hours without breaks, had no protection from the rain and no safety training or knowledge of the risks in their work.

A similar study in B.C. produced similar results.

The surveys, some of the first of their kind in Canada, also asked workers about their living conditions on farms that employ tens of thousands of legal migrants every year through federal government programs.

Almost 15 per cent said they didn’t have access to clean drinking water, very few had fans or air conditioning in their residences and some said there weren’t enough beds for everyone.

But researchers contend that farm and domestic workers often don’t seek help for their health concerns because they fear losing wages or being sent home by their employer and then prevented from returning in the future.

Bette Jean Crews, president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, said the reports’ findings are questionable because the employment of migrant workers is regulated by the federal government.

– The Canadian Press

We’ve spruced up the website- you can now find above more information about the MWSN, see what we’ve published on the issue of migrant workers in the province, and see how you can get involved to support migrant workers in the province.

We would also love to hear from you: you can contact us at mw.solidarity (at) gmail.com.

-the MWSN

Please consider downloading and printing this letter and sending it to Minister Kenny.  You might also send a copy to your local MP. Make sure you print your name and address and date at the top of the letter, and sign your name at the end of the letter.

You can e-mail Jason Kenney at kennej@parl.gc.ca, but the preferably option is to send it in the regular mail to the below address. All mail to Members of Parliament is free, so you do not need to put postage on the envelope.

Jason Kenney
Minister of Immigration
325 East Block
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON
K1A 0A6

Submissions have to be in soon, so please send a letter as soon as possible!

Edit: Changed link to newer version of letter.

Hope to see you there!