Détails du document

2010

Agriculture Workers Alliance

AWA E-News

Agriculture Workers Alliance

As nine workers arrested, Harper government and farm industry “are both complicit in a system ‎designed to exploit foreign workers and dispose of them,” says national leader of UFCW Canada

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.‎

The workers are Thai nationals who were brought to Canada under the federal government’s ‎Temporary Foreign Workers (TFW) program. They were arrested near the Sarnia agriculture ‎operation where they were employed.‎

TFWs are typically granted a two-year work permit, but an underground system of job brokers ‎tied into the farm industry directs these workers to continue to work "under the table" after ‎their visas expire. The nine TFWs arrested near Sarnia are being held in a Toronto detention ‎centre. The Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) confirmed they were arrested "for ‎suspected violations of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act."‎

‎"What’s really being violated here is the human rights of these workers," says Hanley. "The ‎federal government encourages farmers to import TFWs, specifically because these workers are ‎granted next to no status and are under the radar when it comes to workplace protections."‎

‎"By deliberately shortchanging these workers of permanent status, what you have is a TFW ‎program that encourages human trafficking," says Hanley. "What confirms it is that while ‎dozens of workers have been arrested over the past year, not one agriculture operation or job ‎broker has yet to be convicted of breaking the rules when it comes to hiring these workers and ‎paying them under the table."‎

‎"The recent arrests have nothing to do with justice, and everything to do with politics," says ‎Hanley. "These are terror tactics to keep all TFWs afraid and vulnerable. And as soon as the ‎latest victims are shipped out, the federal government’s TFW program brings in a new batch of ‎workers to be exploited."‎

UFCW Canada is the country’s largest private-sector union. In association with the Agriculture ‎Workers Alliance, it operates ten agriculture worker support centers across Canada.‎

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  Temp Foreign Workers take the fall again for farmers and government (http://awa-ata.ca/en/media/e-news-2010/e-news-vol3-issue-9/)
  

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