Solberg and Hanley meet to discuss migrant workers
TORONTO, March 8, 2007 - The issue of temporary foreign workers in Canada was front and centre at a meeting Thursday in Toronto between the Honourable Monte Solberg, Minister of Human Resources and Social Development (HRSDC), and Wayne Hanley, the National President of UFCW Canada."This is the first time in three years the minister of HRSDC has invited us to meet and discuss the conditions facing foreign workers in Canada," said Hanley, "and we look forward to continuing the discussion."
UFCW Canada is one of Canada’s largest private sector unions.
For more than a decade it has been at the forefront of advocating on behalf of the more than 18,000 migrant agricultural workers who are temporarily brought to Canada each season under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP).
The program is administered by HRSDC and has operated since 1966.
"I want to thank Minister Solberg," said Hanley, "for opening the door to an ongoing dialogue between UFCW Canada and HRDSC regarding migrant workers, new immigrant workers, SAWP and all other foreign workers programs."
"Our discussion with the Minister Solberg was frank and open and I think he appreciated that," said Hanley, "because it was based on what we have documented and heard over the years from these workers."
UFCW Canada at its own expense operates five Migrant Agricultural Workers Support Centres in Ontario and Quebec. The centres supply counseling, translation and legal services to the workers, as well as advocacy based on research and documentation of their working and living conditions.
"SAWP is a well established program but as the workers can tell you," said Hanley, "there are problems with SAWP that need to be addressed, and that doesn’t mean dropping the standards even lower by replacing SAWP with a foreign workers program that is totally unmonitored".
"We appreciate Minister Solberg’s invitation to share our views about the migrant worker issue. UFCW Canada is committed to continuing that conversation, having earned the confidence of these workers as a stakeholder and voice for their concerns."