Open Letter: Justice for Migrant Workers Demand the Provincial Government Implement Immediate Emergency Protection for Agricultural Workers
2024年7月9日 - 8:34AM
TO: |
Doug Ford |
|
Premier of Ontario |
|
Premier’s Office, |
|
Room 281, Legislative Building, Queen’s Park |
|
Toronto ON M7A 1A1 |
|
|
AND TO: |
David Piccini |
|
Minister of Labour. Immigration, Training and Skills
Development |
|
14th Floor, 400 University Avenue, Toronto, Ontario M7A
1T7 |
Justice for Migrant Workers (J4MW) continues to
reiterate its previous demand that the provincial government
implements immediate emergency protections for the tens of
thousands of agricultural workers employed in Ontario.
2024 is once again becoming one of the hottest
years on record. In the last few weeks alone, temperatures have
soared and Ontario has become a heat dome while tens of thousands
of workers labour without heat protections. Farmworkers are 35
times more likely than the general public to die of heat exposure.
The province should not wait for a tragedy to happen before
it passes legislation to protect the foundation of Canada’s food
system: farm workers.
On June 24, 2024, J4MW released a public statement
imploring the provincial government to take immediate actions to
protect farm workers. J4MW released a similar statement in July of
last year, to which the Ontario government responded by platitudes
for farmworkers and a commitment to enacting heat regulations.
Nearly one year on, no such regulations have been
enacted.
The Ontario Human Rights Commission has stated
that access to cooling is a human rights issue, and that people
with disabilities, Black, and low-income community members are
disproportionately affected when heat waves and other heat events
occur. Denying migrant farmworkers, who are overwhelmingly
racialized, who are more likely to be injured on the job, and who
work long hours for little pay, is a form of environmental
racism.
While the Ontario government twiddles its thumbs,
farm workers continue to work under the same backbreaking
conditions as always. The province has left it to their employers
to provide proper breaks, hours of work, access to shade and water,
and proper wages - a responsibility that employers continue to
shirk, as workers have reported ongoing issues amidst the heat
waves.
It should not be up to migrant workers to raise
concerns given the extreme heightened vulnerability they experience
due to their precarious immigration status in Canada. There
are still no anti-reprisal mechanisms in place to protect workers
from discipline, termination, and repatriation for raising
concerns.
Other jurisdictions have enacted protections, such
as Washington, California, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Colorado. The
United States itself has proposed a national heat standard. When
will Ontario become a trailblazer for workers’ protections, instead
of implementing piecemeal standards that exclude agricultural
workers?
We once again share the
comments of Johnathon, a migrant worker from Trinidad and Tobago,
whose concerns are echoed by other workers that are not safe to
speak out:
Hello, I would like to
share a bit on what my co-workers and myself are facing at the farm
located in the Haldimand Norfolk region.. My name is Johnathon and
I’ve been working in Canada’s agricultural fields for almost 12
yrs. I’ve harvested a lot of fruits and vegetables over the years.
Apples, carrots, tomatoes and many others. I love it here in Canada
but there are alot of serious issues and ill treatment farm workers
face that no one is aware of and also the weather conditions we
have to work in. I’m almost certain 70-80% of Canada’s agricultural
sector comes from the work of migrant workers, yet enough isn’t
being done for us. My co-workers and I even had to work in
temperatures of 38-45 degrees when a heat warning is in effect.
A lot of us are afraid
to raise any attention or speak out because we would be victimize
or not be requested back to work the following year in Canada if we
did. A few days ago whilst harvesting apples approximately around
2pm, management told the bin operators to remove the bins of apples
out of the fields because they were getting sunburn. We honestly
couldn’t believe it, so we said amongst ourselves, if the apples
can get sunburn, what about us who are there working in bare heat
with no shelter. A lot of workers that are on farms work in
conditions that a normal Canadian citizen will never do.
It affects us a lot
both physically and mentally. Not because we are not beaten or
whipped, we are being treated well. Employers also control farm
workers mentally, by having us afraid to speak out, because we know
that if we do, we would no longer be employed or be able to come to
Canada to provide for our families. I’m hoping that the Government
of Ontario and Canada look into the major issues and problems along
with the conditions that workers face on an everyday basis.
Thank you
The Ford government must enact protections to
address occupational health and safety hazards such as heat stress,
poor air quality, and chemical and pesticide exposure. Ontario
provides no industry-specific regulations for agricultural workers,
exacerbating an already crisis-level situation. To continue this
inaction, to ignore the voices of farm workers and to subject a
predominantly racialized workforce to differential treatment is the
classic definition of environmental racism.
Farmworkers are raising the alarm regarding the
hazards of air quality as well as the sweltering heat both in
greenhouses and in the fields. Several workers have raised fears of
the long term consequences of poor air quality resulting from the
forest fires. Other workers are demanding action against the
sweltering heat and potential health implications.
Justice for Migrant Workers (J4MW) is demanding
the implementation of emergency measures including:
- Workers who work in the heat must be central and key decision
makers in any proposed regulations regarding heat stress;
- Shutting down farms and paying workers in extreme crisis
events;
- Paying workers when they are not employed as a result of
climate-related issues such as forest fires, extreme heat, major
thunderstorms and heavy rain;
- Enacting heat stress protections for workers that are in the
interest of workers;
- Strengthening anti-reprisal measures and proactive
inspections;
- Implementing paid breaks and providing permanent paid sick days
for agricultural workers;
- Providing sufficient shelters, functioning bathrooms and
drinking water for workers at the expense of the employer;
- Providing first aid, hydration stations, and on-site medical
support (RN or RPNs);
- Permitting third party complaints at the Ontario Labour
Relations Board;
- Ending agricultural exclusions under the Employment Standards
Act;
- Incorporating race and gender analysis in both occupational
health and safety and employment standards;
- Ensuring that agricultural harvesters are being paid holiday
pay;
- Implementing clear trigger temperatures for extreme heat and
humidity, including indoor temperatures (e.g., greenhouses);
- Preventive measures to avoid overheating that include: specific
requirements for shade, acclimatization for new and returning
workers, mandatory cool-down rest periods during high temperatures,
along with access to preventive cool-down measures as needed;
- Extend OSHA protections to cover agricultural worker
accommodations;
- Implement protections for both extreme heat and extreme cold
temperature.
Ford has the necessary tools to address long
standing issues raised by farm workers. These are not new issues.
It’s time to act. Immediate and urgent measures are required to end
the structural violence farm workers endure as a result of legal
exclusions that exist within Ontario’s legislative framework.
J4MW also reiterates our longstanding demands for:
permanent status on arrival for migrant farm workers, an end to
unilateral repatriations and disbarment, and equal access to
entitlements such as EI and CPP.
Justice for Migrant Workers (J4MW) is an
all-volunteer collective that consists of current and former
workers, labour and community activists and scholars who advocate
for fairness, dignity and respect for agricultural workers.