UFCW activists advocate for migrant members with ONDP leader

[L-R] Derek Johnstone, UFCW Canada; Marit Stiles, Leader, New Democratic Party of Ontario; Mark Hennessy, UFCW Canada

Toronto – February 21, 2024 – UFCW activists recently met with Ontario NDP leader Marit Stiles to discuss the urgent issues facing the union’s migrant members in Ontario, and to press the Ford government on action to respect the labour rights of migrant farm workers who are excluded from the province’s collective bargaining legislation.

Talks focused on UFCW’s migrant members in Ontario, and the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) which is currently extremely inaccessible for UFCW’s migrant members, especially when compared to the Federal Agri-Food Pilot. UFCW urged Ms. Stiles to advocate for expansion of eligible NOCs (National Occupation Classification) under the OINP and to work to simplify the program to benefit our members.

UFCW Canada represents thousands of migrant members throughout Canada’s food system. UFCW is committed to helping its members here on temporary work permits achieve permanent residency here in Canada.

In addition, UFCW activists stressed that Ontario’s treatment of migrant workers continues to be condemned internationally. Last September, UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, Tomoya Obokata, raised concerns about Canada’s temporary foreign worker programs, stating that they can foster contemporary forms of slavery. Obokata expressed distress over accounts of exploitation and abuse from migrant workers, highlighting that employer-specific work permits make workers vulnerable to such abuses as they fear deportation if they report them.

Obokata’s condemnation of Canada’s temporary foreign worker programs builds upon the UN’s International Labour Organization (ILO)’s 2010 ruling that Canada and Ontario, through Ontario’s ban on farm unions, violated the human rights of the more than 100,000 migrant and domestic agriculture workers in the province.

Ontario continues to deny migrant agricultural workers their fundamental labour rights, despite Canada’s 2017 ratification of core ILO convention 98 on the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention. UFCW activists urged Ms. Stiles to fight for migrant workers in Ontario, and to continue to advocate that their fundamental rights are recognized and protected.