Calgary, Alberta - At the national and at the local union level, UFCW Canada continues to act as a leading voice for immigrant workers within the labour movement, particularly in regard to the expanding population of the over 200,000 Temporary Foreign Workers (TFWs) labouring in the Canadian agricultural, manufacturing and service sectors.

With 15 delegates from  across Canada, UFCW Canada was the strongest labour voice at the recent 11th National Metropolis Conference held in Calgary. The Conference brought together over 1,500 academics, politicians, bureaucrats, and community organizations to debate Canadian immigration policies and legislation.

Not surprisingly, the focus of the conference was on the Western provinces and on the growing number of TFWs in the labour force. These vulnerable workers are treated as a cheap and disposable labour force under the pretext that they work only in jobs Canadians refuse to work in. Employers and bureaucrats from the Government of Alberta and the Federal   Ministries of Immigration and HRSDC stressed the benefits of the current immigration policies that emphasize temporary foreign workers over permanent roads to residency.

UFCW Canada and our allies countered by presenting the true realities of the Temporary Foreign Workers Program. Our decades-long program of working with agricultural workers and other TFWs informed a broader discussion. It is clear that the current federal immigration regime hands over the reins to corporations and allows business interests to dominate immigration policies and priorities. At almost every opportunity, the UFCW Canada delegation vocally opposed theses narrow and self-serving views of governments and employers.

Naveen Mehta (UFCW Canada, Director of Human Rights and Equity and Diversity) was a panelist on a session focusing on the issue of Temporary Foreign Workers. He spoke about the numerous legal challenges UFCW Canada has been a part of in the fight for equal labour rights for migrant workers.

Mehta stressed the hard fought victories achieved by UFCW Canada local unions, including UFCW Canada Local 1118 in Alberta and UFCW Canada Local 832 in Manitoba – which combined represent thousands of Temporary Foreign Workers in various Alberta and Manitoba meat processing plants. Both of these UFCW Canada local unions have negotiated a path to permanent residency for unionized TFWs through the various provincial nominee programs.

“These UFCW Canada locals unions exhibit one of the true and invaluable strengths of the remarkable work of UFCW Canada as a union -  the ability to collectively bargain rights for historically exploited workers," said Mehta. As a result of being UFCW Canada members, not only do these workers get out of the wrong immigration line; these temporary foreign workers are given a clear and rapid path to permanent residency.

"Issues relating to the immeasurable benefits of unionization for TFWs must be injected into the mainstream discourse if we are to see meaningful outcomes.”

Stan Raper (National Representative and Coordinator of the Agricultural Workers Alliance) also made a presentation on a panel.  He focused on agricultural workers (a large proportion of whom are temporary foreign workers) and on UFCW Canada’s twenty-year fight to ensure the right to unionization and to a voice for migrant workers.

“These temporary work programs are employer and government driven initiatives that undermine workers rights” explained Raper. Our decades of work with migrant agricultural workers have shown that working collectively, and collective bargaining, are the only ways that we can gain a voice for migrant workers. Unionization can give vulnerable workers the strength to oppose rights violations.”

The conference was an important space to showcase UFCW Canada’s innovative work on behalf of Temporary Foreign Workers. It provided a venue for the UFCW Canada delegation to meet many of the key academics, policy makers, service providers and community advocates that work on immigration issues.