Kit Andres’ cellphone was known among migrant farm workers as a hotline for whatever they needed, but during the COVID-19 pandemic, it has transformed into a lifeline as workers across the country call in secrecy to report poor conditions on farms.
“They really don’t know who we are, so to even just reach out and send us a WhatsApp message saying ‘This is what’s going on at my farm, please help,’ was a huge risk for them,” Andres, an organizer with the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, told CBC News.
Migrant farm workers have also been among the hardest hit groups during the pandemic. The virus has infected close to1,000 of them in Ontario, three of whom died. It has sparked calls for governing bodies to improve workers’ conditions.
Before the pandemic, hotline staff said calls were mainly about things like Employment Insurance and migrant workers rights in Canada. But as coronavirus took hold, Andres said they noticed an increase in calls about conditions on the farms.
She said it would take multiple calls for her to win a migrant worker’s trust before they would tell her their real name and what farm they worked on.
“Some of those conversations are still ongoing because of the level of fear on these farms. It’s so real and deep, they don’t feel safe even sharing a fake name with me.”
Workers fear consequences of speaking out
She said the culture of fear comes from many of the 60,000 seasonal farm workers in Canada having their bosses also serve as their landlords. Many live where they work.
Andres said some of them are undocumented and almost all are temporary workers whose status is tied to a sole employer. If the worker has an issue with that employer, she said, it could affect whether they get hired in the future.
And she said the “fear and intimidation” was there long before the novel coronavirus emerged.
WATCH | Undocumented migrant workers fear deportation during COVID-19 pandemic:
Ontario has started onsite testing as a way to tackle the COVID-19 outbreaks on farms and in greenhouses in Windsor-Essex County. But the government’s measures overlook approximately 2,000 undocumented migrant workers in the area, and fears of deportation prevent them from coming forward. 4:05
Andres focuses on English-speaking and Caribbean workers in Niagara, but has received calls from across Canada.
She and a colleague, Sonia Aviles, told CBC Front Burner they heard about allegations of racism in the calls, as well as cramped, unhygienic conditions, sometimes with little to no food. Andres said she drove some supplies to farm workers herself to make sure they had basic groceries.
She said she was also able to help some of the workers in Haldimand and Norfolk counties in southern Ontario at hot spots like the Scotlynn Group Farm, which saw one migrant worker die and roughly 200 others become infected.
Scotlynn president and CEO Scott Biddle told Front Burner that the farm had taken “every precautionary measure” to prevent the coronavirus and “followed every protocol put in place.”
Keith Currie, president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) and vice-president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA), said the public is only getting one side of the story.
“If it was such a problem with what’s being reported across the industry, why would [the seasonal worker program] be 60 years old and why would these people keep coming back over multiple generations?” he said.
He said the outbreaks on farms are no different than long-term care homes, with groups of people working in close proximity. Currie added that there are many inspections and protocols in place. Some of those were “virtual” inspections.
“What we know now is those protocols aren’t COVID-19 proof,” he said.
Workers walk on the property at Scotlynn Group Farm near Vittoria, Ont., on Wednesday, June 3, 2020. A coronavirus outbreak at the farm saw one migrant worker die and roughly 200 others become infected. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press)
Path to permanent resident status is key, advocate says
Andres said fixing up specific farms isn’t enough.
“The problem is not about individual employers. It’s not about a few bad apples breaking the rules. It’s that the rules themselves are not good enough,” she said.
“The issue is there’s not a national housing standard that every employer has to abide by. Wherever a worker is going to in Canada, they can’t be assured wherever they end up, the housing will be clean, safe and dignified because they don’t have a choice about what farm they get sent to.”
Currie said the idea that migrant workers have no rights is “unfair.”
“They have the same labour rights, the same rights to health care … they are absolutely looked after the same way you and I are. They even pay into CPP so when they go home, they are able to collect a pension,” he explained.
Migrant farm workers harvest corn in Abbotsford, B.C., in September 2019. The workers have been among the hardest hit groups during the pandemic, sparking calls to improve workers’ conditions. (Maggie MacPherson/CBC)
He also said not every farm owner is perfect and that the OFA and CFA try their best to provide the best working conditions for employees.
“Do we want to make things better? Absolutely … doing a panic, rushed move to try and fix everything in one-fell swoop might lead to a whole other problem.”
Andres argues that one of the most important solutions would be creating better access to obtaining permanent resident status, which would offer a safety net for workers who could face homelessness, unemployment or deportation for turning down work.
Currie said the government has been piloting a path to permanent resident status for workers in the agriculture setting and those results could lead to similar opportunities for others.
Andres said she hopes they act soon.
“Without having their permanent resident status here, they will never feel completely free to assert their rights and speak out … they’re sick of being in constant crisis.”
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
