Hanley and Bloc leader meet about migrant workers
Montréal, March 12, 2007 - Wayne Hanley, the National President of UFCW Canada, and Gilles Duceppe, the leader of the Bloc Québécois have met to discuss the condition of tens of thousands of migrant agricultural workers brought temporarily to Canada each season.“Earlier today I had the opportunity to meet with Mr. Duceppe to explain our commitment to improve the treatment of these workers under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP), " said Hanley.
“ The Bloc Québécois leader listened attentively to our concerns, particularly in that SAWP does need fixing but shouldn’t be dropped altogether to be replaced by Foreign Worker Low Skills programs that offer even less workplace protection for these workers."
Duceppe and Hanley met Monday in Montréal. Their meeting follows a meeting late last week between Hanley and Monte Solberg, the Minister of Human Resources and Social Development (HRSDC).
At the Solberg meeting Hanley also discussed migrant workers and SAWP.
“My thanks to Mr. Duceppe for meeting to discuss SAWP and other foreign worker programs. I think both he and Minister Solberg now have a better eyewitness picture of the situation, that the rights and working conditions of temporary agricultural workers in Canada really have to re-visited.”
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 SAWP.
UFCW Canada at its own expense operates five Migrant Agricultural Workers Support Centres in Ontario and Québec. The centres supply counseling, translation and legal services to the workers, as well as stakeholder advocacy based on research and documentation of their working and living conditions.
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