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MIGRANT WORKERS SOLIDARITY NETWORK

MIGRANT WORKERS SOLIDARITY NETWORK. How local is Manitoba-grown food?. Today’s presentation. Ellen Smirl will give some broad context to the issue of migrant workers in Manitoba’s food-production system

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MIGRANT WORKERS SOLIDARITY NETWORK

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  1. MIGRANT WORKERS SOLIDARITY NETWORK How local is Manitoba-grown food?

  2. Today’s presentation • Ellen Smirl will give some broad context to the issue of migrant workers in Manitoba’s food-production system • Lynne Fernandez will explain how and why migrant workers come to Manitoba and what they find here • Gustavo Mejicanos will explain what happened with the UFCW certification and de-certification • Video clip from El Contrato

  3. Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP) • 1964 • Agreement between federal governments of Canada, Mexico and several Caribbean countries • Workers go to B.C, Alberta, Sask., Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, and ?? • Every year around 400 mostly Mexican men come to Manitoba to work on our farms

  4. Why do these workers come? • Conditions in Mexico bad and getting worse • NAFTA exacerbated already crushing poverty by flooding Mexico with low-price American corn • Little opportunity – low wages: cannot support their families • Parts of Mexico becoming unliveable because of drug wars

  5. Why do Canadian farmers want them? • Canadians don’t want to do hard physical work for low pay • Migrant workers accept low pay • Migrant workers work hard • Migrant workers often put up with conditions Canadians would not • Migrant workers don’t complain (as much as Canadians) and often not at all

  6. What’s the problem? • Workers isolated from urban centres • Often mistreated and overworked • Do not speak English so don’t know their rights • Pay income tax, CCP and EI but do not enjoy then all same services/benefits that Canadians do • Cannot immigrate to Canada • “unskilled labour” - 3D jobs: dirty, difficult, dangerous

  7. Why don’t they seek help/protection? • Imbalance of power prevents them from seeking help • Who will advocate for them? • They’re told that if they don’t like it, there’s hundreds more like them waiting to come and work • Labour laws favour employers • Province interested in keeping food prices low: consumers unwilling to pay higher prices • Canada benefits from “importing” Mexico’s unemployment

  8. The New Normal • Immigration laws changing • Attitudes changing • Global phenomenon • Neo-liberal environment is decidedly anti-worker, pro employer • Many of our family members wouldn’t be allowed into Canada today

  9. When buying local isn’t so local Inputs of production: • Land √ • Capital (machinery, seeds, plants, fertilizers) √ (?) • Labour X

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