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UFCW Canada-Mexico dialogue continues

 
The dialogue between UFCW Canada and Mexico on behalf of migrant Mexican agriculture workers employed in Canada continued in a series of meetings held recently in Mexico.

 

This latest delegation to Mexico furthers the relationship with Mexican officials and labour groups established by UFCW Canada National President Wayne Hanley. Over the past 14 months, meetings have been held in Mexico and Canada, and UFCW Canada hosted a Mexican government fact-finding commission that travelled to Canada last June (DIRECTIONS 7.05).

 

Representing Brother Hanley in Mexico at the latest round of talks was Victor Carrozzino, recently named executive assistant to the UFCW Canada national president. During his five-day trip, Brother Carrozzino met with officials of the Mexican ministry of foreign affairs. The ministry is responsible as the administrative agency for the more than 18,000 Mexican workers who come to Canada each season under the Cana dian Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (CSAWP).

 

"In our meetings, we continued to raise UFCW Canada's concerns about the conditions faced by Mexican workers under the CSAWP," Brother Hanley says.

 

"We further assured the ministry that UFCW Canada is committed as an ally to these workers in seeking resolutions to the challenges they face while in Canada."

 

Carrozzino also met with parliamentarians of Mexico's three largest political parties (PAN, PRI, and PRD, all of which were represented in the June 2007 delegation to Canada), as well as a number of labour organizations including the Confederaci¢n Nacional Campesina, or CNC. The CNC, founded in 1935 as part of the land reform and redistribution movement that followed the Mexican revolution, today is a broad-based coalition of farm workers, farmers, and farm organizations.

 

While not a political party, the CNC - much like a central labour body such as the CLC in Canada - has worked for the past 70 years to become a powerful voice for those who live on and work the land in Mexico, and now those who work in Canada as migrants.

 

Workers soon departing for Canada will be receiving, thanks to the CNC and other organizations, a UFCW Canada guide on labour rights in Canada as well as contact information for the UFCW Canada Agricultural Worker Support Centres across Canada.