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Immigrant workers particularly vulnerable

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados — The nearly 6,500 English speaking Caribbean farm workers who work in Ontario every

year need to join a trade union to correct

an unsavoury state of affairs which, among other things, forces these migra- tory workers to receive lower wages than Canadian workers for similar work.

According to the recently formed

Canadian Farmworkers Union (CFU), the need for workers to organize is close- ly related to the political campaign for Improved legislation in the areas of Wages and medical and other benefits for the farm employees. Making these points While passing through Barbados earlier this month was the CFU’s Ontario or- Zanizer, Mutali Chanda. _ Chanda, who was born in Zambia but 1S now a permanent resident of Canada, also visited the neighboring island of Dominica where he spoke at a seminar Organized by that country’s Dominica Farmers Union on the 15-year-old Seasonal farm program between Ottawa and regional governments.

Under the program, agricultural Workers come from a number of coun- tries, mainly from the Anglophone Caribbean and Mexico to pick apples, tomatoes, tobacco leaves and other pro- duce. They usually come up in July and leave in late November. At present, about 800 Barbadians for example make the trek to Ontario farms every year Under the scheme.

_ ‘The 100,000 seasonal farm workers in Ontario, the province where the bulk of the overseas seasonal workers come to, are excluded from the main legislation Covering the minimum wage, medical benefits, safety measures and so on,”’ Said Chanda.

_ “Our present thrust, although we are In the field with the workers with the aim

of establishing locals,’’ he continued, “‘is to wage a political campaign for basic protection, for improved legislation. In reality, these workers have no legal pro- tection whatsoever that other workers enjoy.”

Chanda said that there are two aspects of this campaign. The first, he pointed out, is to make sure that seasonal farm workers as a whole, including Cana- dians, get paid wages similar to Cana- dians in other occupations.

“The present minimum wage in On- tario is $3.65 per hour. This means that no employer may pay a worker less than that. However, the average for all farm workers, the bulk of whom are seasonal, _ last year was $2.85 per hour. This is not good enough,” stressed Chanda.

‘Secondly, as aunion représenting the interests of all the workers in the indus- try, we are anxious to make sure that because of their status those workers coming from other countries are not paid less and given fewer benefits than other farm workers doing similar work. We

|OTO — NORMAN FARIA

O TRIBUNE PH

MUTALI CHANDA

From the Caribbean

note, for example, that employers are wont to give bonus payments to the overseas workers,” he said.

The three year old CFU, which is af- filiated to the Canadian Labour Con- gress, and has locals among the 20,000 East Indian farm worker community in British Columbia, is also fighting for im- proved legislation regarding health hazards in the farmworkers’ working environment.

“The use of pesticides and other chemicals sprayed onto the crops, even when workers are in nearby fields, is a definite problem for the workers and it is our aim to see that there is meaningful legislation in this regard,’ said Chanda.

Turning to the question of ownership patterns among employers of farm work- ers in Ontario, the CFU official said that over the last few years many Canadian

family farms have folded up or have been

taken over by big food companies and agro industries which now control 15 per cent of all farm land in Ontario.

“The way we see it is that the present program involving workers from over- seas is a way of obtaining cheap labor to the benefit of the big agro-industries and big farms. It is also a divisive tool used by Ottawa against the workers in their struggles to organize,’’ argued Chanda.

‘‘The problem is that the farmers, who are themselves under pressure from the agro-industrial firms, may use the ample supply of overseas workers to keep

| Farm workers source of cheap labor

Norman Faria

wages and the supply of benefits low to all the workers,’’ he added.

‘‘An important dimension of the CFU’s work is to build worker unity and reduce racial tensions among the domes- tic work force who are mainly white and the seasonal workers from other lands who are mainly Afro-Caribbean peoples and other visible minorities like Mexi- cans and East Indians. The English speaking Canadians also have to learn to work closely with the French speaking Quebecois farm workers who come to work on Ontario farms during the sum- mer, said Chanda.

Responding to the question whether the CFU would like to see the Otta- wa-Caribbean farm worker program scrapped, Chanda said that the CFU is working for the interests of all farm

- workers. However, the union is never-

theless concerned that employers may wish to manipulate the number of em- ployees coming from overseas so as to undermine the campaign of all workers to improve their working conditions, to receive a decent wage and other benefits.

“The bringing in of Caribbean farm workers to Canada, as is presently done, is not in our view a form of Canadian aid to the Caribbean countries. Canada should train more Caribbean workers in Canada so that when they return to their countries, their skills will be put to good use that would benefit the islands,” Chanda concluded.

Who runs CLC international affairs?

On several occasions this column has referred to John Harker, head of the International Affairs Department of the Canadian Labor Congress. On one Occasion we referred to the composition of the Department and its habit of ‘‘seconding’’ workers from the government and vice-versa.

Mr. Harker was quick to respond and deny our

allegations. We responded by offering to substantiate

our allegations and proposed that we would publish both his denial, our allegations, substantiating mate- Tial and any rebuttal he might like to. make.

We proposed that this material be published at the

same time in the CLC publication. We have not heard from Mr. Harker or the CLC on this proposal. _ What brought us back to the matter was a short item in Canadian Labor, monthly publication of the CLC for May 1983. Here it is: ‘‘Rick Jackson will join the CLC International Affairs Department in Ottawa as a National representative on June 14. At present he is working with the Inter-American Federation (ORIT) Of the International Confederation of Free Trade. Unions, (ICFTU) with headquarters in Mexico City, On short-term contract which began last August.

A member of the Public Service Alliance of Cana- da, he was assistant to the national president of PSAC Prior to his ORIT appointment.

He began full time union work as an education

Officer with PSAC in 1977. While employed in the —

Department of External Affairs, 1973-77, he had a two year posting to Santiago, Chile, as the communicator for the Canadian Embassy.” (emph. W.S.)

Sceptical, Suspicious _ Weare not aquainted with Rick Jackson, but we are More than a little sceptical as to how a two-year stint

+ « |Labor in action / | William Stewart

in Santiago, Chile, during the fascist junta of Pinochet, would qualify anyone for the international affairs department of a labor body.

Beyond this, it seems almost policy of the CLC to have their International Affairs Department person- nel trained through the agencies of the ICFTU. While we are all in favor of internationalism, we are more than a little suspicious of the internationalism of the ICFTU which ends at the borders of the socialist countries.

The ICFTU was born in close collaboration with the CIA which built it up to smash the united world labor movement after World-War Two. When it veer- ed away from the cold-war line ascribed to it by U.S. imperialism in the early 1960s, the AFL-CIO pulled out of the organization.

During this period the Canadian Labor Congress, which had previously kept a low profile inthe ICFTU, assumed a more prominent role. It was also during this period that the possibilities of united actions be- tween the ICFTU and the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) improved.

Glaring Contradiction Under the’ leadership of Lane Kirkland, the AFL- CIO has re-entered the ICFTU, for the obvious pur- pose of sharpening up the cold-war stance of that body in line with the policy aims of U.S. imperialism which the AFL-CIO slavishly supports.

In these circumstances the CLC finds itself more and more in the position where, whether it likes it or not, that as long as it gets its international affairs line from the ICFTU it will more and more find itself being influenced by the AFL-CIO. At a time when the CLC is fighting for the full atuonomy of the Canadian trade union movement this is a glaring contradiction.

Our information leads us to believe that the Inter- national Affairs Department, does not fully reflect the views of the CLC executive on a whole range of international issues. Rather, it is like many other departments of the CLC, a semi-autonomous body pointing to the fractured character of the CLC which is far more inclined to be a pale reflection of its con- stituent parts, rather than a firm guiding body with definitive policies and aims.

President Dennis McDermott, perhaps more than any other president, has aimed at overcoming this scattered character of the CLC, and perhaps with some degree of success. He has not however over- come, it seems to us, the problem of semi- autonomous centres like the International Affairs Department which tends to operate outside the deci- sions of Congress conventions, and also influence the CLC executive and leadership in wrong directions as a result of their own orientation and connections.

We would suggest tha the position of head of the International Affairs Department of the Congress is far too serious a post to be held by a staff appointee. Rather it should be held by an elected officer of the Congress, someone who would have to answer to the Convention for their policies. We hope it will not offend Mr. Harker when we suggest that if this were the case he would be looking for a job following the next convention.

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