• Health Canada claws back requirement for industry to provide agricultural workers access to pesticides safety information

  • Security guards join union – UFCW 1006A

  • International Labour Organization adopts first-ever code of practice for growing aquaculture sector

  • Uber drivers in Victoria ratify first-of-its-kind union contract

  • UFCW Canada calls for ban on surveillance pricing

  • Great Canadian Food Products – Stand up for Canada

  • The National Defence Fund

  • Migrant Food Workers deserve permanent residency: Demand Pathways Now!

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DIRECTIONS 10.06: Ontario construction death inquiry spurred by community and labour activists

Vol. X No. 6 Feb. 15, 2010

Ontario construction death inquiry spurred by community and labour activists

 

The announcement by the Ontario government that it will appoint an expert advisory panel to investigate the slew of deaths and accidents at Ontario construction sites is welcome news, says UFCW Canada National President Wayne Hanley, so long as all stakeholders are at the table.

“We are encouraged that the voices of labour and community activists are finally being heard,” he says. “That has to continue to be the case if the work of this panel is going to result in saving lives and reducing accidents.”

The province’s announcement resulted from an intensive campaign by migrant worker advocacy groups – such as No One is Illegal – Toronto and Justice for Migrant Workers – as well as UFCW Canada and other labour unions in the wake of a Christmas Eve construction site accident in Toronto that killed four workers and left a fifth worker in critical condition. The workers plummeted more than 13 storeys to the pavement below when the highrise platform from which they were working collapsed. All five workers had precarious immigration status in Canada.

“Shoddy equipment, weak enforcement, and lax inspection are certainly factors. But underlying those concerns is the rampant abuse of migrant workers and their inability to raise workplace concerns because of their status,” says Naveen Mehta, UFCW Canada Director of Human Rights, Equity & Diversity.

“It isn’t just Ontario, either. It is a national crisis. You have a federal Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) program that effectively encourages employers to treat workers like disposable commodities,” he adds. “It is an issue the Ontario expert panel cannot ignore. You should not be able to build profits on the bodies of migrant workers.”
 

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