End blacklisting - treat farmworkers fair!
Pearnel Charles Jr., Ministry of Labour - Jamaica
Because migrants are denied permanent status in Canada, seasonal migrant farmworkers are forced to depend on our employers to get requested back to the country each year to support our families. We are threatened with being banned (blacklisted) from the farmwork program if we speak up about abuse and unsafe conditions.
This unfair practice of blacklisting will end - but only if we take action together today!
Sponsored by
To:
Pearnel Charles Jr., Ministry of Labour - Jamaica
From:
[Your Name]
WHEREAS farmwork is one of the most dangerous jobs in the world and migrant farmworkers in Canada experience unsafe and abusive living and working conditions such as racist treatment, wage theft, crowded housing, labouring through heat warnings, floods, fires and smoke;
WHEREAS migrant farmworkers are denied permanent status and full labour rights, equal access to healthcare, and family unity;
WHEREAS blacklisting is used as a tool by employers to intimidate and punish migrant farmworkers who speak up for their rights as humans, as workers, and report unsafe living and working conditions;
WE, THE UNDERSIGNED, Jamaican farmworkers in the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program and our supporters in Canada,
CALL UPON THE Minister of Labour and Social Security, Pearnel Charles Jr.,
TO
Meet with Migrant Workers Alliance for Change farmworker members and listen to workers' concerns;
End the discriminatory punishment of blacklisting, as directed by migrant farmworkers;
Create an ombuds office at the Ministry of Labour to support farmworkers who have not been requested back by their employer, and to facilitate placement on another farm;
Call on the Canadian government to grant permanent resident status to all migrants on arrival, including seasonal farmworkers.