The men and women who harvest our food and feed our families need your help because fear, danger and oppression are daily realities in our food production system — and government is guilty of promoting it. This was recently confirmed by the United Nations which found Canada and Ontario guilty of violating the rights of farm workers by preventing them from improving their workplace and safety conditions through collective bargaining. |
Dangerous Working ConditionsEvery day farm workers face dangerous work without proper gear or training. Fatalities are not uncommon, like two workers without respirators who were recently killed by toxic fumes at an Ontario farm. |
Deplorable Housing ConditionsSeasonal farm workers are crammed by the dozens into makeshift shanties that go uninspected for health, safety and fire regulations. This shanty for 18 workers has one bath room for 18 workers, no fire escape and windows held together with plastic sheeting. |
Unsafe TransportationWorkers are killed or injured every season being trucked to the fields, jammed into unsafe vans and flat bed trucks like animals. A tragic example: in 2007 a van packed with 17 farm workers flipped and killed 3 passengers in B.C. The driver was fined $2,000 and given a traffic ticket |
Health and Safety ViolationsAgriculture workers are told not to report injuries or illness. If they do raise concerns, migrant farm workers are typically shipped out that day and banished from ever working in Canada again. |
By choking the labour rights of farm workers, Canada and Ontario are guilty of promoting a system where agriculture workers are chained by desperation and gagged by fear of reprisal if they report health, safety or abuse issues. Help Canada’s agriculture workers but sharing this story — online and in person — with your friends, family and coworkers. Send a message you can’t accept a food system tainted with abuse, or a government that is guilty of allowing it to continue. |
UFCW Canada Locals 175 & 633:
6628 Ellis Road
Cambridge, Ontario, N3C 2V4
UFCW Canada Local 247:
544 Columbia Street
New Westminster, British Columbia, V3L 1B1
UFCW Canada Local 401 - Calgary Centre:
#100, 46 Hopewell Way N.E.
Calgary, Alberta, T3J 5H7
UFCW Canada Local 401 - Edmonton Centre:
14040 – 128 Avenue
Edmonton, Alberta, T5L 4M8
UFCW Canada Local 500 - Bureau de Montreal:
100-1200 Cremazie Boulevard East
Montreal, Quebec, H2P 3A7
UFCW Canada Local 500 - Bureau de Sherbrooke:
2144, rue King Ouest, Bureau 100
Sherbrooke, Québec, J1J 2E8
UFCW Canada Local 500 - Bureau de Gatineau:
1400, rue St-Louis, Bureau 203
Gatineau, Québec, J8T 2N1
UFCW Canada Local 500 - Bureau de Québec:
3100, avenue du Bourg-Royal, Bureau 200
Québec, Québec, G1C 5S7
UFCW Canada Local 501:
4850 boul Métropolitain est
St-Léonard, Québec, H1S-2Z7
UFCW Canada Local 832:
2nd Floor, 880 Portage Avenue
Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3G 0P1
UFCW Canada Local 1400:
1526 Fletcher Road
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, S7M 5M1
UFCW Canada Local 1518:
303-3275 Lakeshore Road
Kelowna, British Columbia, V1W 3S9
UFCW Canada Local 1006A:
70 Creditview Road
Woodbridge, Ontario, L4L 9N4
To find out more about our Local Union training centres, please contact UFCW Canada at 416-675-1104, or by e-mail at [email protected].
The UFCW Canada National Defence Fund (NDF) is your guarantee that, in the event of a strike or lockout, not only will your local union have the resources to fight even the biggest employer on your behalf, but you will receive extra strike benefits to reduce the impact of the strike on you and your family.
The UFCW NDF was established in 1986 in anticipation of the possibility of major strikes in Canada's packinghouse industry that year. 1986 turned out to be a turning-point in the industry, with the six-and-a-half month strike by more than 1,000 members at Gainers Meats in Edmonton, and a shorter lockout of nearly 500 members at the Fletcher's Fine Foods packinghouse in nearby Red Deer.
The fledgling NDF was able to help in the strike and the united front of the workers in 1986, and survived the extreme pressure on its resources in that first year.
The NDF continues to support thousands of UFCW Canada members across the country. The NDF has been at the forefront of many of the biggest battles worker have seen with questionable employers in recent years. From the multi-province strike in 1997 against food-industry giant Maple Leaf, to Quebec struggles with retail stores of Super C, IGA and Maxi. The battles in the protein sector against Olymel in Quebec and XL Beef in Saskatchewan, and the Chateau Bathurst Hotel in New Brunswick.
The goal and purpose of the fund is to provide members with further financial security during strikes and lockouts.
The NDF provides three contribution rate levels. Contributions to the NDF are made on a monthly basis by the participating local unions on a per capita basis for each member in each affiliated unit for each week. The weekly per capita rate, as determined by a vote of the membership of each affiliated unit is $2.00 equivalent to $200 per week picket pay, $1.00 equivalent to $100 per week picket pay, or .50 cents equivalent to $50 per week picket pay.
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United Food and Commercial Workers Union
Canada's private sector union