Migrant workers protest at Canada’s embassy in Mexico
Under the flags of the Agriculture Workers Alliance, more than 300 Mexican migrant farm workers descended on the Canadian embassy in Mexico City to denounce their working and living conditions as migrant agriculture workers in Canada under the federal government’s Seasonal Agriculture Workers Program (SAWP).
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Education Has No Borders
Activists, academics, unionists, and the media recently packed the Tinto Café in downtown Toronto to take part in a UFCW Canada sponsored event called Education Has No Borders that provided community members with a fun-filled opportunity to see and try new migrant worker resources and discuss the empowering effect of education.
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Tractor tragedy strikes on eve of Ontario safety hearings
“Agriculture workers in Ontario absolutely need better protection than they get now, and the Expert Advisory Panel can’t ignore that,” says National President Hanley.
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UFCW Canada union victory for Quebec farm workers
Seasonal agriculture workers in Quebec have had their Charter rights to unionize upheld by a decision rendered by the Quebec Labour Relations Board (QLRB). The QLRB decision to certify a union bargaining unit at a Mirabel-area farm comes 20 months and 36 days of hearings after a majority workers at the farm chose to join UFCW Canada.
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Alberta continues to stall on farm safety recommendations
While deaths and injuries continue on Alberta farms, the Stelmach government continues to resist adopting the inquiry recommendations of Alberta Justice Peter Barley.
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Temp Foreign Workers take the fall again for farmers and government
TORONTO - The Ontario arrest and detainment of nine temporary foreign workers “is the latest example that both the Harper government and the farm industry are both complicit in a system designed to exploit foreign workers and dispose of them,” says Wayne Hanley, the National President of UFCW Canada.
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Alberta stats confirm frontline evidence of foreign worker abuse
The violation of the workplace rights of many Temporary Foreign Workers (TFW) in Alberta “reinforces what we’ve reported for years now,” says Wayne Hanley, the National President of UFCW Canada. “Except for locations where those workers have a union, TFWs in Alberta and across Canada are regular targets for exploitation and workplace abuse.”
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Seasonal Agricultural Workers at BC farm go union with UFCW Canada
The BC Labour Relations Board has certified a bargaining unit of more than 70 migrant agriculture workers after a majority of the workers voted to join UFCW Canada Local 1518.
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A Year of Government Delay Adds to Alberta’s Harvest of Death
January 28, 2010 — UFCW Canada, the union that has led the campaign for the rights of agriculture workers, is calling on the Alberta government to act without further delay to implement the recommendations of a public inquiry conducted by Justice Peter Barley to include farm workers under provincial workplace health and safety legislation
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Farmworkers quest for human rights arrives at the Supreme Court on December 17
The Province of Ontario vs. its Farm workers: “Farm workers are human beings. We’re not farm animals,” says agriculture worker who looks to the Supreme Court to uphold her human rights
OTTAWA- This Thursday, December 17, a decades-long quest by Ontario farm workers to regain their human rights arrives at the Supreme Court of Canada.
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National protest for migrant workers rights
Toronto, Ont. 03/12/2009- UFCW Canada joined community and social justice groups on December 2 in a National Day of Action for Migrant Workers that saw activists gather in cities across the country to blow the whistle on the Conservative Stephen Harper government’s failure to provide real protections for the most vulnerable people in Canada’s workforce.
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Immigrant workers protest against “sweatshop” boss
19/11/2009- A group of new Canadian workers came together with UFCW Canada activists in Toronto on November 19 to draw attention to what they describe as the callous and abusive actions of their employer, Lincare Limited.
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Migrant agriculture workers focus of new photo-essay book
05/11/2009 Acclaimed Canadian documentary photographer and social activist Vincenzo Pietropaolo’s new book, Harvest Pilgrims, is a compelling testament to the tens of thousands of migrant workers who are the backbone of Canada’s agriculture industry, yet continue to be denied many of the basic workplace rights that protect other workers.
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Auditor General Report Confirms Abuses in Temporary Foreign Worker Program
Toronto 04/11/2009– The Report of the Auditor General released on November 3, strongly supports advocates’ concerns over the massive shortcomings of the Federal Temporary Foreign Worker Program. Auditor General Sheila Fraser exposed the realities of a program that makes migrant workers exceptionally vulnerable to abuses.
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Real Protection for Temporary Foreign Workers requires Real Solutions, not unenforced paper protocols
TORONTO1 4/10/2009- New measures to be undertaken by the government of Canada, which it asserts work towards greater protection of Temporary Foreign Workers, fall significantly short of any meaningful protections
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Status of Migrant Farm Workers in Canada, 2008-2009 Report issued
Initial copies of UFCW Canada’s much-anticipated The Status of Migrant Farm Workers in Canada,
2008-2009 are off the press and have been sent to Canadian and Mexican government officials as well as activists in recent weeks.
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Historic victory for migrant farm workers
TORONTO - Sep 23/09 - Contract sets new precedent for rights of workers
A breakthrough collective agreement was reached September 21 between UFCW Canada and Floralia Growers of Abbotsford, B.C.
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AWA community celebrates opening of Virgil centre
TORONTO - Aug 18/09 - Heavy rain and thunderstorms were not enough to stop more than 250 workers from attending the annual open house held by UFCW Canada and the Agriculture Workers Alliance (AWA) recently in Virgil, Ont.
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More workers arrested in another immigration raid in SW Ontario
TORONTO - June 25/09 - On Wednesday, June 24, Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) agents raided the Sea Cliff Farms Limited greenhouse in Leamington, Ontario and arrested three migrant workers. This is the third set of CBSA raids carried out in Leamington and other Ontario centres since early April, including a May 27 raid where nine female migrant workers at another Leamington greenhouse were arrested.
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Michoacán minister visits AWA centres
May 18, 2009 — About 2,500 agriculture workers from the central Mexican state of Michoacán come to Canada each season under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP. Recently, Michocan’s immigration minister travelled to Canada to find out from her compatriots first-hand about the challenges they face, and the support they are receiving through the efforts of UFCW Canada and the Agriculture Workers Alliance (AWA).
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UFCW Canada and allies call to end Canada’s shameful secret
TORONTO, May 7, 2009 – UFCW Canada, along with three other of Canada’s largest labour organizations, is calling on the Harper government to ratify three international Conventions that protect workers’ rights.
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National Callout in Support of Migrant Workers and their Families
The long awaited report and recommendations from the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration that studied the situation of migrant workers has been released on Wednesday May 6, 2009 along with two dramatically different minority reports from the Conservatives and the New Democrats.
The Canadian Labour Congress and a national network of migrant rights allies welcome the release of this important report. For too long, migrant workers and their families have been subjected to a flawed federal program, known as the Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP) which fails to comprehensively protect the rights of these vulnerable workers.
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Migrant workers speak out and community rallies
Migrant workers from across Canada gathered on May 2 to celebrate May Day, the international day of workers’ struggle, and to speak about the realities of living and working in Canada as temporary and precarious labourers in the context of the economic crisis and the health concerns raised by the swine flu outbreak.
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Statement by National President Wayne Hanley on new screening protocols for seasonal Mexican agriculture workers arriving in Canada
TORONTO, April 27, 2009 — “Over the past decade, UFCW Canada has supplied information and services to tens of thousands of seasonal agriculture workers who are fundamental to the Canadian agriculture sector. The majority of those workers come from Mexico
under a long-established federal program that has always required health
testing of workers before they arrive in Canada.
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UFCW Canada Speaks Out Against U.S. Style Immigration Raids in Southern Ontario
TORONTO, Apr. 5, 2009 - Toronto - Dozens of migrant workers in Bradford, Markham, Leamington, and East Toronto have been arrested, detained and are likely slated for deportation at the Rexdale Immigration Holding Centre after a series of U.S. style immigration raids carried out by CBSA (Canada Border Services Agency) throughout this week.
These raids in Southern Ontario are reminiscent of those carried out in 2006 by U.S. Immigration and Customs
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UFCW Canada files complaint against Ontario with United Nations agency
TORONTO, March 23, 2009 - UFCW Canada, the country’s largest private sector union has added international profile to its campaign to achieve collective bargaining rights for Ontario’s agriculture workers when on Monday it filed a formal complaint with the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Geneva, Switzerland.
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Mexico state and UFCW Canada sign migrant worker protection pact
MORELIA, MICHOACÁN, MEXICO, February 24, 2009 - Migrant workers from the Mexico state of Michoacán will have enhanced protections when they arrive in Canada this season, thanks to a new historic agreement. Under the pact, workers from Michoacán will be assisted in Canada by UFCW Canada in association with the Agriculture Workers Alliance (AWA).
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Over 50 additional foreign farm workers fired during Christmas season
TORONTO, ONTARIO - Dec. 23, 2008 — More than 50 Guatemalan farm workers, the majority of them women, have been issued notices of termination by Rol-Land Farms. The workers were told that they are scheduled to be evicted and repatriated on December 28, 29 and 30 during the Christmas season.
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Fired foreign agriculture workers at Rol-Land Farms speak out
TORONTO, ONTARIO - Dec. 11, 2008 — Seven foreign agriculture workers recently fired and evicted by Canada’s largest mushroom producer, Rol-Land Farms, joined members of UFCW Canada, Justicia for Migrant workers, and academics to speak about the problems of the Temporary Foreign Workers program and its impact on workers.
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Scores of Temporary Foreign Workers deported by Ontario agri-complex
More than 70 Mexican and Jamaican agriculture workers at a mushroom grow house facility were fired without notice December 6 by Rol-Land Farms. No reason was given for the firings. “We cannot tolerate such treatment of workers in this country,” said UFCW Canada National President Wayne Hanley. “We can’t allow the expansion of programs that create second class residents and workers.”
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Ontario court ruling opens the gate to farm unions
Dec.6th — More than 70 Mexican and Jamaican agriculture workers at a mushroom grow house facility were fired without notice December 6 by Rol-Land Farms. No reason was given for the firings. “We cannot tolerate such treatment of workers in this country,” said UFCW Canada National President Wayne Hanley. “We can’t allow the expansion of programs that create second class residents and workers.”
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UFCW Local 501 applies at another Quebec farm
MONTRÉAL, October 28, 2008 – UFCW Canada Local 501 has applied for certification at another farm in Quebec.
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Another B.C. farm goes union with UFCW Canada
2008-10-10
VANCOUVER, B.C.– Oct. 10, 2008 - Agriculture workers at Floralia Plant Growers Limited in Abbotsford, B.C., have formed the second UFCW Canada bargaining unit at a B.C. agricultural operation, after a majority of the workers voted to join UFCW Canada Local 1518.
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B.C. farm employers launch legal attack on migrant workers
2008-10-01
VANCOUVER, October 1, 2008 – Two agricultural employer groups claiming to represent farm employers are going to the British Columbia Labour Relations Board (BCLRB) in an effort to prevent migrant farm workers from having the same protections that apply to Canadian workers.
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Farm workers repatriated after exercising human rights
2008-09-14
The B.C. Labour Relations Board will conduct a union certification vote September 15, for a greenhouse in Abbotsford despite the fact that half the workers will not be able to participate in the process – because they have been removed from their jobs and sent to Mexico.
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UFCW Canada National President calls for public inquiry into B.C. mushroom farm fatalities
2008-09-07
UFCW Canada National President Wayne Hanley has called for an inquiry following the deaths of three workers and the hospitalization of three others after the workers were overcome on Friday, September 5, by fumes at a Langley, B.C. mushroom growing facility.
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Seasonal farm workers in B.C. go union with UFCW Canada
2008-08-08
SURREY, B.C. - Workers at Greenway Farms Ltd. in Surrey, B.C. have gone union after a majority of ballots cast Thursday said “yes” to representation by UFCW Canada. The victory makes Greenway the first-ever B.C. agriculture bargaining unit made up of seasonal agricultural workers who travel to Canada to work each season under the federal Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP).
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Hog barn members ratify first contract
2008-08-01
Members of UFCW Canada Local 832 who work at PIC Canada Ltd., a hog-breeding operation in Malonton, Man., have overwhelmingly ratified a first collective agreement. The bargaining unit was certified in February 2008 after the workers at the hog barn and breeding facility in Manitoba’s Interlake district, about 80 kilometers north of Winnipeg, unanimously signed cards to join the local union.
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Ratification of UFCW Canada first-contract at Manitoba farm historic breakthrough for migrant workers
2008-06-23
TORONTO, June 23, 2008 – Workers at Mayfair Farms in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba have made history by overwhelmingly ratifying the first-ever contract to cover migrant agriculture workers employed seasonally at a farm operation in Canada.
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UFCW Canada takes ban on Ontario agriculture unions back to court
2008-05-21
The rights of Ontario’s more than 100,000 agricultural workers were front and centre as a landmark appeal filed by UFCW Canada was heard May 20 and 21, 2008 by the Ontario Court of Appeal. The application was brought on behalf of three Ontario agricultural workers who worked at the Rol-Land Farms mushroom grow house facility in Kingsville, Ontario who in 2003, along with a majority of the workers at Rol-Land, had voted to form a UFCW Canada unit.
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Manitoba leads the way – again
2008-03-31
The Manitoba NDP government of Premier Gary Doer has announced that it will become the first province to regulate recruiters of temporary foreign workers working in Canada, as well as the province’s businesses that hire them. “This is a good move, and it should be followed by all other jurisdictions,” says Wayne Hanley, the national president of UFCW Canada.
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Manitoba farm workers gain Employment Standards cover: Hanley calls on Ontario to follow
2008-02-01
WINNIPEG, MB - The Manitoba government’s announcement that this June agricultural workers across the province will have the same workplace protections and standards that have covered most other Manitoba workers since 1957, “is very good news and the Manitoba government should be commended,” said Wayne Hanley, the national president of UFCW Canada (United Food and Commercial Workers Canada.
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Canada continues to exploit migrant workers says annual report: Report on the Status of Migrant Farm Workers in Canada raises concerns lax rules to protect migrants are about to get even weaker
2007-11-06
As Canada expands its use of migrant workers, the already weak rules to protect them from abuse are getting even weaker according to the latest Report on the Status of Migrant Farm Workers in Canada. “If you’ve got problems keep them to yourself or you’ll be sent packing. That’s the implicit threat that many of these workers tell us they continue to face each day”, says Wayne Hanley, the National President of UFCW Canada, “and what little protection the system offers them now is getting worse.”
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Mexico discusses migrant workers with UFCW Canada during Calderon visit
2007-07-21
OTTAWA - The National President of UFCW Canada, the union that represents Mexican migrant workers at a Manitoba farm and has union applications pending on behalf of Mexican migrant workers at three other farms in Quebec has met with a senior official of Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s government to discuss the challenges facing Mexican migrant workers in Canada.
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Supreme Court ruling opens the way to Ontario farm worker unions
2007-06-08
OTTAWA, ON, June 8, 2007 – The campaign to allow Ontario farm workers to form unions for the purposes of collective bargaining has been given a huge boost by a decision handed down by the Supreme Court of Canada upholding collective bargaining as an inherent constitutional right under the Freedom of Association provisions of the Charter of Rights of Freedoms.
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Prosperity and the free trade in exploited workers
2007-02-23
OTTAWA- While Canadian and Mexican officials continue to discuss the expansion of the Mexican migrant labour force in Canada, the workers themselves continue to be shut out from the conversation.
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Hanley and Bloc leader meet about migrant workers
2007-03-12
Montréal, March 12, 2007 - Wayne Hanley, the National President of UFCW Canada, and Gilles Duceppe, the leader of the Bloc Québécois have met to discuss the condition of tens of thousands of migrant agricultural workers brought temporarily to Canada each season.
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Solberg and Hanley meet to discuss migrant workers
2007-03-08
TORONTO, March 8, 2007 - The issue of temporary foreign workers in Canada was front and centre at a meeting Thursday in Toronto between the Honourable Monte Solberg, Minister of Human Resources and Social Development (HRSDC), and Wayne Hanley, the National President of UFCW Canada.
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Mexican migrant workers apply to join Canadian union UFCW/TUAC: Workers seek say in contract imposed by Mexican and Canadian governments
2006-09-20
TORONTO, September 20, 2006 - In a historical breakthrough that could eventually impact thousands of migrant agricultural workers brought each season to Canada, Mexican migrant workers at three farms in Québec and one farm in Manitoba have applied to go union with UFCW Canada (known as TUAC Canada in Québec).
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UFCW Canada gains health and safety coverage for Ontario farm workers
2006-06-29
TORONTO, June 29, 2006 – As of June 30th, Ontario farm workers will be covered under the Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA). The new health and safety coverage for farm workers comes in the wake of a 3-year public awareness campaign and legal battle led by UFCW Canada.
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Farm deaths and injuries mount while Ontario backtracks on safety regulations:Extension of Occupational Health and Safety Act to cover farm workers exempts farms from most of the OHSA regulations
2006-03-10
TORONTO, March 10, 2006 – The recent accidental death of another Ontario agricultural worker is one more tragic reason agricultural workers need the fullest protection of the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA), not the watered-down version the government is planning to extend to the sector in June 2006.
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Agricultural workers’ right to unionize likely grounds for appeal
2006-01-13
TORONTO, January 13, 2006 – The campaign to allow Ontario farm workers to form unions is likely heading back to the Ontario Court of Appeal after a ruling handed down this week by Ontario Superior Court Justice James Farley.
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UFCW Canada wins right to represent migrant agricultural workers in Charter challenge
2006-01-09
The United Food and Commercial Workers Canada (UFCW Canada) has made legal history by becoming the first union ever to win the right to challenge the government on behalf of unorganized workers whose rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms are being violated but who do not have the means or the opportunity to seek redress through the courts.
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Farm workers campaign grows
2005-08-26
Justice for Alberta agricultural workers has moved one step closer with the signing of a new organizing protocol between the Farmworkers Union of Alberta and UFCW Canada.
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End the Drought! Legal Protection for Farm Workers Now!
2005-08-23
The Alberta Federation of Labour has announced a campaign to pressure the Alberta government to extend to farm workers the same basic employment protections now provided to other Alberta workers.
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Labour Relations Act continues to discriminate against Ontario agriculture workers
2004-11-03
Changes to the Ontario Labour Relations Act (OLRA) announced by the McGuinty government do nothing to end the discriminatory exclusion of Ontario agriculture workers from coverage under the Act.
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Layton raises plight of Mexican migrant workers in Canada with Mexico’s President Fox
2004-10-25
The substandard housing, safety, and working conditions in Canada for the more than 10,000 seasonal migrant farm workers who come here from Mexico each year were on the agenda when Jack Layton, leader of the NDP, conferred with Vicente Fox at a private Ottawa meeting following the Mexican president’s address to Parliament.
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Agricultural workers take Ontario government to court
2004-04-03
Ontario agricultural workers continue to be denied the right to unionize in spite of a 2001 Supreme Court of Canada decision which ruled that denying these rights to agricultural workers violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
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Ontario greenhouse workers apply to go union
2004-03-30
The UFCW has applied to the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) to certify it as the bargaining agent for employees of a tomato hothouse factory farm in Chatham, Ontario.
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Agricultural workers closer to unionization with UFCW Canada
2003-09-03
UFCW Canada has hailed an Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) decision as a “major victory” as the board announced today that they will proceed on September 19, 2003 with the counting of the ballots from the UFCW Canada organizing campaign at Rol-Land Farms in Kingsville Ontario.
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Mushroom boycott campaign to launch on Labour Day
2003-08-27
UFCW Canada is calling on consumers to boycott fresh mushrooms from Rol-Land Farms. UFCW Canada will officially launch the Rol-Land Farms consumer boycott campaign at Labour Day parades in Toronto, London, Windsor, Kingston and other centres across Ontario next Monday.
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UFCW Canada organizes Kingsville mushroom factory employees working under “appalling” conditions
2003-06-27
UFCW Canada has asked the Ontario Labour Relations Board to certify it as the bargaining agent for employees of a mushroom factory near Windsor. An overwhelming majority of the 270 production workers at Rol-Land Farms Inc. in Kingsville recently signed UFCW Canada membership cards.
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UFCW Canada opens third migrant agricultural workers support centre in Simcoe
2003-06-25
The third support centre for migrant agricultural workers is opening June 29, 2003 in Simcoe, Ontario. The community-based centre will provide services to almost 5,000 seasonal migrant workers.
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Eves government faces Charter challenge over exclusion of agricultural workers from health and safety act
2003-06-20
UFCW Canada filed a legal application today to Ontario’s Supreme Court charging that the Eves government’s exclusion of agricultural workers from the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) violates Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
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UFCW Canada meets with Jane Stewart Federal HRDC Minister
2003-06-18
Human Resources Development Canada Minister Jane Stewart contacted UFCW Canada officials last week about the federal government’s response to workers affected by layoffs due to the mad cow crisis. Michael J. Fraser, national director of UFCW Canada, met with Stewart this morning to explore ways to aid workers in the beef industry.
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UFCW Canada launches postcard campaign in support of Ontario’s agricultural workers
2003-03-07
In response to the Ontario government’s continuing refusal to grant agricultural workers the same rights as other workers in the province, UFCW Canada has launched a post card campaign to heighten public awareness of the basic rights that the 100,000 agricultural workers in Ontario are denied.
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UFCW Canada slams agricultural workers Bill
2002-11-01
Bill 187 introduced in the legislature on October 7 by Agricultural Minister Helen Johns gives agricultural workers the right to join or form an association but not collective bargaining. Agricultural workers will not have the same union rights as other workers in the province.
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