Multi-sectoral groups tackle migrant worker issues

Multi-sectoral groups tackle migrant worker issues

PHOTOS: Beth Dollaga

New Westminster, BC

By E. Maestro

British Columbia MLA Mable Elmore and Gordon August

In the last decade, there  has been an increased number of temporary foreign workers (TFWs) across Canada – low-skilled temporary foreign workers, caregivers and seasonal agricultural workers.  Meanwhile, programs and policies that can protect and promote their rights and welfare are lacking, if not absent.   In many cases, these workers may be isolated from progressive organizations and unions that can assist them.

In the first TFW-led conference on temporary foreign workers called the “Building and Strengthening Workers’ Solidarity”,  the grassroots organization Migrante BC gathered together union leaders, lawyers, community organizations and migrant advocates from the academe, church,  youth, health and other sectors, including some elected officials.  The conference aimed to  raise awareness and deepen the understanding of the issue of migrant workers,  to  learn from each other and formulate collective  actions to advance workers’ rights and welfare.

Sanctuary Health UBC Migrante

On this weekend of Dec 3-4, the themes of “Educate, Organize and Mobilize” were heard and repeated throughout the conference at the Unifor Hall in New Westminster, BC. New friends were introduced and connected, old contacts were renewed, solidarity links were made.

Conference Keynote Speaker  was Dr. Ethel  Tungohan, a professor  from York University, whose current research looks at national and transnational  activist pursuits of migrant domestic workers,  and a community activist as well.  In her keynote speech, she emphasized that while 2016 has been a “horrible year for workers, migrants and most especially migrant workers” everywhere, people have shown that by coming together, they will not be defeated. She said, “We really need to come together, to cast aside political and personal differences, and see the importance of working towards justice for migrants, justice for workers, and justice for people.”

Fight for all Workers Rights

Working together meant understanding the commodification of workers in Canadian history and the labour export program of the Philippines, one to the top source countries for TFWs to Canada. This also meant tackling other equally important issues on employment standards and protections, access to health care for migrant workers and  “undocumented” workers, learning organizing strategies , and taking up the campaign against the  Project Guardian of the Canada Border Services Agency which targets caregivers in the provinces of  BC and the Yukon for deportation.

Migrant workers shared their moving “Stories of Struggle and Hope” which illustrated the personal and social costs of migration and family separation. They were Avelina Vasquez and Hessed Torres, two caregivers from the earlier Foreign Domestic Movement and the most recent Live-in Caregiver Program respectively, Mildred German, a migrant youth with her story of family separation, Cholo Sales, one of over 70 TFWs at the Denny’s Restaurants who took their employer to court in a historic class action suit, and Gabriel Allahdua, a former agricultural worker from the Caribbean.

Union reps talked about the labour movement and how we can continue to link up, create new partners and allies, and strengthen these solidarity networks in the fight for all workers’ rights. These included Joey Hartman, President of the Vancouver and District Labour Council, Jennifer Whiteside, Hospital Employees Union’s Secretary Business Manager and Mark Olsen, President of the Labourers’ International Union (LiUNA).

The second day focused on the youth and their role in a progressive movement that fights for the rights of all workers. The “inter-generational” dialogue with elder and veteran activists was the sharing of personal histories and experiences spanning decades of work in the labour and social justice movements. Elsie Dean, community and peace activist in her 90s, Marion Pollack, a retired  union activist with Canadian Union of Postal Workers and Harsha Walia, social justice activist and mother from No One Is Illegal led the workshops with multi-generations of workers and activists teaching and learning from each other.

Conference presenters included Dr. Chandu Claver of Migrante BC and Bayan, David Fairey of the Employment Standards Coalition, Lawyer Rene-John Nicolas, Natalie Drolet of West Coast Domestic Workers Association, Mable Elmore, MLA for Vancouver Kensington and Opposition Spokesperson for TFWs & Immigration, Sarah St. John and Alejandra Bravo from Sanctuary Health, Kari Michaels of BCGEU, Marikit Saturay and Einstein Recedes of AnakBayan Europe and the Philippines respectively.

The Conference ended on a high note with Migrante BC making its calls to action and all the groups committing to work together because “we are all in the same fight.”