Migrant agricultural workers from Honduras began toiling in Quebec
fields this week, after a Quebec farm lobby group and Honduran
officials cut a deal to bring the workers to Canada under the federal
government's controversial Temporary Foreign Workers (TFW) program.
The TFW program provides no oversight to prevent the abuse of foreign
workers contracted to Canadian employers, yet it is a program the
federal government has aggressively been expanding by the tens of
thousands of workers.

"The TFW program is the federal government's "Exploitation Express"
that delivers migrant workers to Canada as a vulnerable and disposable
work force," says Wayne Hanley, the national president of UFCW Canada
- the country's largest private sector union. "The collusion between
the farm lobby and the governments is not only appalling, but an
assault on the rights and safety of precarious workers who are fired
and shipped out if they voice any concerns."

While the newly arrived Honduran workers do have visas and a work
permits, the employment contract they are forced to sign clearly
states that Canada "has no power to intervene or ensure the contract
is enforced" in case of dismissal, abuse or exploitation.

The abuse of migrant workers under TFW program was recently in the
news (www.ufcw.ca (http://www.ufcw.ca) ) after UFCW Canada and
community allies launched a campaign to denounce the nefarious living
and working conditions of migrant Guatemalan farm workers. For a
number of years workers from Guatemala have been brought to Canada
under TFW contracts that force them to sign away some of their basic
workplace rights to get the job and keep it.

Yet in spite of the well documented problems with the TFW program, the
federal government has begun discussions, along with industrial
agriculture lobbyists, to "harmonize" the system; potentially allowing
employers even less supervision, as well as passing housing and
transportation costs that are now paid for by employers onto the
workers.

"The TFW program absolutely has to change," says Hanley, "but what's
going on here is the private sector, behind closed doors, calling the
shots on employment and immigration policy."

"The abuse has to end - not increase. That will only happen with an
open and just public review and reform of the programs that bring
temporary workers to Canada," said the UFCW Canada national leader.

"Whether workers come from Honduras, Mexico, the Caribbean, Guatemala,
Thailand, the Philippines or other sending countries, the story is the
same. They are forced to surrender their human and workplace rights at
the border in order to work here. The federal government would say
it's not so but a public review would definitely show otherwise."

UFCW Canada has been an ally and advocate for migrant agricultural
workers in Canada for more than three decades, and in association with
the Agriculture Workers Alliance (AWA) operates ten agriculture worker
support centres across Canada.