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UFCW Canada blasts province for arresting farm labourers while ignoring agricultural operators who break the rules.
Toronto (26 March 2010) - 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 the United Food and Commercial Workers (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 Wayne Hanley, UFCW Canada's national president.
"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," he notes.
"By deliberately shortchanging these workers of permanent status, what you have is a TFW program that encourages human trafficking. 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," Hanley notes.
"The recent arrests have nothing to do with justice, and everything to do with politics," he says. "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."
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