Canada – Today, on International Migrants Day, Mexican migrant workers in Canada’s Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP) are demanding that the Mexican government protect their rights.
Leonel Nava, who drafted the letter, is a migrant worker who worked in the Christmas tree sector in Nova Scotia this past season.
Here is an excerpt from the letter, which he plans to personally deliver to the Mexican President:
“Citizen President of the Republic of the United Mexican States
Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada.
Dear President and Prime Minister:
A group of Migrant Farm Workers present the reality of working and living in Canada and demand Permanent Residency for All,
Since its creation, this program was only created to satisfy the lack of Canadian labor and to be able to supply its internal demand for food, and from there it has escalated to a billion dollar industry, all thanks to the migration of labor to perform field work that really requires physical and mental effort due to the distance from family, customs, culture, friends, food and the lack of knowledge of the language for many.
President, you are responsible for our welfare, so we ask you to do the following:
– Pressure the Canadian government to implement and enforce the National Housing Standards;
– Protect us at work by implementing an anonymous system to report abusive employers who put our safety and/or our jobs at risk. We ask that when we make a complaint, you stand up and represent us;
– Ensure greater job security and put an end to the practice of employers making observations in our files that are not factual and often result in workers being expelled from the program without the possibility of appeal or transfer;
– Ensure that Mexican consulates in Canada do their job to look after the welfare of Mexican workers abroad, that the consuls have contact with us not with the employers, create a commission of migrant workers to evaluate the work of the consulate because no one supervises them and they can do what they want with us,
– Allow us to represent ourselves and our interests in contract negotiations;
– Provide education about the contracts we sign, what our rights are in Canada and support us in accessing and enforcing our rights;
– Allow access to benefits that we pay for through deductions and taxes, such as: regular unemployment insurance benefits, parental benefits as it was before the amendment to the law in 2012, full pension benefits and survivor benefits for our families in case of death, tax benefits for our children that any Canadian citizen can get and for that reason;
– Ask the Canadian government to grant Permanent Resident Status to all immigrants upon arrival, including seasonal agricultural workers.
As agricultural workers in Canada we experience abuses, unjustified dismissals, deportations, mistreatment and above all intimidation, because without permanent status in Canada we have to endure all of the above with the vague hope that next year we will return.
Pressure the Canadian government to change our status and surprise consular visits to the farms to see the reality of the precariousness of living in overcrowding and sometimes even among pests as well as the lack of interest in health on the part of employers, for example, working without personal protection or any training in handling chemicals, just to mention some of many.
We invite you to be part of history and be part of the social justice we deserve and give us the place we deserve both in Mexico and Canada.
With thanks in advance and best regards
Sincerely,
Agricultural Workers in Canada”
No One Is Illegal – Nova Scotia Canada (NOII-NS) supports and endorses the demands of the Mexican workers. Moreover, NOII-NS echoes the call of migrant workers in Nova Scotia for immediate access to the public health care system, which in the province of Nova Scotia is not provided to seasonal agricultural workers. This was one of the top provincial priorities of migrant workers in Nova Scotia according to a survey conducted by NOII-NS in 2021.
