Commemorating 50 years of Mexican Seasonal Agricutural Worker Program is nothing to celebrate!

This year’s commemoration of the 50 years of the Mexican SAWP is not a celebration because you cannot celebrate 50 years of injustice and exploitation.

Photo: 50 Year Commemoration of Mexico Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program Credit: Migrant Workers Alliance for Change Facebook

The success of capitalism depends, in part, on the exploitation of an indentured class. In Canada, migrant workers seeking a better life for themselves and their families often take these demanding manual jobs with the hope of earning a decent standard of living, becoming a permanent resident and then eventually a Canadian citizen.

For most migrant workers — also known as temporary foreign workers — that illusive dream never becomes a reality. Instead, migrant workers live in poverty, fear and are subjected to exploitation because they do not have permanent resident status.

June 17, 2024 marked the 50^th anniversary of the launch of the Mexican Seasonal Agricultural Worker program (SAWP).  

According to the Government of Canada SAWP website:

“The Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) allows employers to hire temporary foreign workers (TFW) when Canadians and permanent residents are not available.

These employers can hire TFWs from participating countries for a maximum period of 8 months, between January 1 and December 15, provided they are able to offer the workers a minimum of 240 hours of work within a period of 6 weeks or less.

To qualify for the SAWP, employers must meet 3 criteria:

1.    the TFWs hired must be citizens from Mexico or participating Caribbean countries. Caribbean SAWP began in 1966 – a full eight years earlier than Mexican SAWP.

2.    production must be in specific commodity sectors

3.    the activity must be related to on farm primary agriculture”

Under wages and working conditions the site states,

“You must provide temporary foreign workers (TFWs) with the same wages and benefits as those provided to Canadian and permanent resident employees working in the same occupation. TFWs working in a unionized environment must be paid the wage rate as established under the collective bargaining agreement.”

Under working conditions it further states,

“Canadian law protects all workers in Canada, including TFWs. The exploitation of a TFW is considered a violation of Canadian laws and human rights.

Employers must:

• pay workers for all work (including overtime, where required by law)

• provide workplace safety insurance

• offer TFWs the same benefits as other workers, and

• not take the TFWs identification

Employment in most occupations is covered under provincial/territorial legislation that deals with labour and employment standards, such as hours of work, working conditions and termination of employment. In fact, every province/territory has a Ministry of Labour that can provide information to assist employers and TFWs with questions or issues related to work.”

However, rates of pay vary by province and territory and can either be an hourly minimum wage or piece work.

Ontario has its own set of special rules and exemptions that outline migrant workers are not entitled to:

• minimum wage

• daily and weekly limits on hours of work

• daily rest periods

• time off between shifts

• weekly/bi-weekly rest periods

• eating periods

• three-hour rule

• overtime pay

• public holidays or public holiday pay

• vacation with pay

Employers can also make additional deductions from migrant workers wages including:

• $2.36/working day for utility costs (water, electricity, etc.)

• Up to $5.45/working day to your home country’s government. This does not apply to workers from Mexico.

• 10% of your gross pay each pay period to pay for up to 50% of air travel cost.

• $10/day if your boss provides you with reasonable and proper meals.

• Rent

The conditions under which migrant workers live and work puts them at greater risk from the infections like the novel coronavirus, especially when they are unable to access personal protective equipment and universal health care.

Without access to primary care migrant workers are forced to let health conditions deteriorate until they have no other choice but to go to an emergency department for care.

Migrant workers pay into employment insurance (EI), but in most cases are unable to access EI, and could not access CERB. 

These are the working conditions that over 60,000 migrant farm workers have to endure each and every year.

And, thanks to climate change the list of abuses grows longer with Migrant Workers Alliance for Change (MWAC) demanding proactive initiatives including:

• Proactive enforcement, migrant worker specific anti-reprisal mechanisms and protections

• Migrant farm worker housing included in heat stress regulations

• Mandatory 10-minute paid break in a cool shaded area, every 2 hours during heat and humidity warnings added to regulations

• Mandated access to hazard pay during heat and humidity warnings

Migrant agricultural workers literally feed Canadian families. Farmers have long admitted that they could not grow, harvest and ship their produce without migrant workers and that became more apparent during the pandemic lock down.

In fact, Scott Biddle, president and CEO of Scottlyn Group, was willing to pay Norfolk residents $25 an hour to pick asparagus while his workforce was in quarantine. Picking asparagus is a skill that should be well-paid. Unfortunately, Norfolk folks have not developed that skill and quickly gave up leaving 450 acres of asparagus unpicked.

But did that mean this corporate farm operation realized that it should increase the pay of the skilled migrant workers that work their lands? Not a chance and that’s what is so infuriating as it lays bare the blatant racism, social injustices, human rights violations and lack of gratitude that migrant workers face every day.

Migrant workers are subjected to unfair rules that include employer-restricted permits; exclusions from basic labour rights and protections like minimum wage and overtime pay. They are warehoused in employer-controlled homes and denied health and safety protections. They’re often forced to work with pesticides and with heavy machinery without training or personal protective equipment. As a result, migrant agricultural workers are injured, abused and sometimes die without any recourse to justice. 

Illness or injury is enough for an employer to send a migrant worker back to their home country. Taking concerns and complaints to their boss or government officials will get them blacklisted or fired and sent back to their home countries without recourse or compensation.

"For 50 years Mexican farm workers have sacrificed their lives, their bodies, and their families to grow the Canadian economy but have been excluded from rights and protections that are only accessible through permanent resident status. Today, Mexican farm workers want to remind Canadians that they are humans who deserve equality, fairness and dignity," stated Luisa Ortiz-Garza, staff organizer with MWAC.

"50 years of several sad stories of fellow agricultural migrant workers in which the only beneficiary has been the Canadian government and the farmers who have created a multimillion-dollar industry that has not been reflected in the progress of the workers," Ortiz-Garza added.

In 2022, Canada’s agri-food industry generated $143.8 billion which is about 7.0%, of Canada's gross domestic product (GDP). But the migrant workers on whose backs the entire industry relies are excluded from all permanent residency programs, including the Agri-Food Immigration Pilot, and therefore equal rights.

Gabriel Camacho is a Mexican farm worker and member of the MWAC who comes from Tlaxcala, the first Mexican state to participate in the program.

Camacho stated, "We have endured a lot of exploitation from the bosses because they have always seen us as machines that don't get tired, like robots that have no right to protest, they do not care about our feelings and pain of being away from the family." 

In September 2023, UN Special Rapporteur, Tomoya Obokata, expressed deep concern over the accounts of exploitation and abuse shared with him during his 14-day visit to Canada. In his end-of-mission statement, Obokata highlighted the vulnerability of migrant workers within Canada’s foreign-worker programs.

“Employer-specific work permit regimes, including certain Temporary Foreign Worker Programmes, make migrant workers vulnerable to contemporary forms of slavery, as they cannot report abuses without fear of deportation,” Obokata said.

Obokata emphasized the urgent need for Canadian authorities to regularize the status of foreign migrant workers and dismantle the closed work permit system. He called for the establishment of a clear pathway to permanent residency for all migrants, aimed at preventing the recurrence of abuses within the foreign-worker programs.

That same month, Ketty Nivyabandi, Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada’s English-speaking section, released a statement backing Obokata’s report and reinforcing that the findings should serve as a wake-up call for lawmakers and civil-society groups.

“Canada has work to do to ensure we not only eliminate modern forms of slavery but also create an environment where it is impossible for them to take root,” Nivyabandi wrote.

The anniversary of Mexico entering SAWP serves as a critical moment to address systemic issues and finally make changes to a half a century of indentureship and exploitation. The MWAC calls on Canada to prioritize the rights and dignity of all migrant workers, ensuring fair wages, safe working conditions, and permanent resident status on arrival.

---

An important article by Adam D. K. King for The Maple regarding Ontario Premier Doug Ford continued inaction to address working conditions including extreme heat for migrant workers and the systemic injustice of our food system in Ontario and Canada: Doug Ford Is Letting Migrant Workers Die From Extreme Heat.

---

Thanks to everyone who read today’s article. With your continued support, a little Nicoll can make a lot of change.