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“We used to be seen as job thieves, now I'm happy that people like us for who we are and the work we do,” Carlos tells me when I join him around 10 p.m. after his 2 p.m. shift. It is true that we need this work to be able to feed our families but, here, we are also very much needed. It's a win-win situation.” Foreign agricultural workers demonstrate great courage and stamina, motivated primarily by the need to provide for their families. This is the reason why they are coveted by more than 2,500 agricultural producers, in Quebec alone. The fact that as many of them are returning home this year due to the pandemic has a direct impact on the environment and the conditions in which they are forced to work.
A better future for his family
Carlos has been part of the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) for nine years. For two years, he has worked for the first months of the season in a nursery in Montérégie, and then continued his work until the fall with a vegetable farmer in the region. The father of three children, originally from Mexico City, worked first in Ontario before starting his work on vegetable farms in Quebec. After having his first child, he decided to follow in his father's footsteps and become, like him, a seasonal agricultural worker. “My dad won't be able to come this year for the first time in 22 years,” Carlos says. Thousands of Mexican workers will be absent this year due to the administrative delay in processing their work permits. Carlos is sorry: “It's sad because we all want to go back to work so we can improve the quality of life for our family.”
With the current minimum wage of around eight dollars a day in Mexico, it would be difficult for Carlos to provide for his wife and children, even while working overtime. “By working three quarters of the year here, I can offer my family much more than if I worked at the sawmill all year round.” Arriving in Quebec since February, Carlos has seen his workload increase in recent weeks, due to the absence of some of these colleagues. “In normal times, we are 12 workers Mexicans at my employer but, this year, there are only 7 of us.”
Because of the labor shortage in the middle of the peak perennial season, he starts his shift at 7 a.m., without knowing what time it will end. “Sometimes we finish at 6 p.m., others at 8 p.m. or 9 p.m., like today, others at 8 p.m. or 9 p.m., like today,” he says. But I am still happy to be here, despite the intensity of the work at the moment. It's easier to endure such long shifts in horticulture, as the tasks are less arduous than in the fields.” Working from morning until very late at night, Carlos must often plan to bring enough food from home to have two meals at his workplace. However, when his shift is extended the same day, he is forced to wait before going home for dinner.
Violated rights
Without a mask or gloves, Carlos does not feel protected against COVID-19 by his employer. “However, we have heard that colleagues from other farms must wear masks at all times at work,” he notes.Carlos and his colleagues do their best to respect physical distance both at work and at the apartment where they are staying by their employer, but they have constraints to get there. “There are seven of us traveling together in a minivan. to get to the farm, go home after work, go to the grocery store or the bank. Four of us live together, but the other three live elsewhere.”
Reached by phone this week, the coordinator of the Réseau d'aide aux Travailleurs et Travailleurs Migrants Agricoles du Québec (RATTMAQ), Michel Pilon, says: “We received more than twenty calls from workers who claim to have been forced to work up to 6 p.m. a day, and two complaints concerning workers who were even forced to work during their quarantine period. They want it to slow down a bit, they're really tired. I think that we are burning the candle of the workers and there will be accidents at work somewhere if this continues.”
The Union of Agricultural Producers (UPA) had to intervene in these cases to remind farmers not to have their employees work for more than 12 hours a day. “We keep the complaints anonymous, we do not give the names of the workers to avoid reprisals,” he continues.
Regarding the wearing of masks and gloves, his organization has also received a few complaints. “I explain to workers that wearing a mask is mandatory when there is less than two meters between them and that it is the employer who must provide them with the necessary protective equipment.” Mr. Pilon said he sent these complaints to the Commission des Normes, de l'Équité, de la Santé et de la Sésurance du Travail (CNESST), which is responsible for following up on them for ensure that employers comply with public health regulations.
According to Mr. Pilon, some employers currently confine workers to the farm once they have finished their shift, an issue he would have raised at the Human Rights Commission.
“There are workers who have been disciplined because they left the farm on their day off,” he says. Employers say they don't want COVID-19 to enter the farm, but when Quebecers arrive to work on their farms this summer, they won't be able to lock them down at home. If they want to go out for a walk after work, they have the right to do so. So why deny workers this right? Rules and freedoms should apply the same way. You cannot treat a temporary worker differently from a Quebec worker. It's discrimination.”
- Pilon and his team will continue to work in the field until July, in order to continue distributing leaflets in Spanish to all workers arriving at Montreal Airport, about COVID-19 and their rights during quarantine.
Good, fresh, cheap
“We won't be able to feed Canadians at an affordable price without immigrants,” said federal immigration minister Marco Mendicino last week when the Liberals' immigration plan was announced. “We have to ask ourselves at the expense of who we can afford to eat,” replies Viviana Medina, coordinator at the Immigrant Workers Center (CTI) to Minister Mendicino. She denounces intensified inequality in the current pandemic context. Viviana Medina argues that highlighting inequalities against essential workers should be a wake-up call for all of society. “Now that we realize that the machine is not working, we need to sit down and think about how we are going to change things for the most vulnerable people on the front lines right now.”
Have an opportunity
Nearly 16,000 seasonal agricultural workers leave their families in Mexico and Guatemala for a few months each year to come and work in Quebec, sometimes for more than two decades, without having the right to settle there.The new Agri-Food Pilot Program implemented by the federal government until 2023 will allow 16,000 non-seasonal foreign workers to apply for permanent residence for themselves and their families, except in Quebec. As a result, seasonal agricultural workers are excluded from the program across the country. Contributing to the Quebec economy and society for nine years, Carlos hopes that the government can one day give him the opportunity to obtain permanent residence in Canada, so that he can have the same rights as Canadians.
“One day I would like to be able to live here with my family and work here all year round. My greatest wish is to see my children grow up safely and to provide them with a prosperous future. After the pandemic, I hope that things can change for us.” Is Quebec society ready to follow the model of Enice Toussaint who lives happily with her grandchildren? “It's a big bus that needs to change sides, it's not easy,” concludes geriatric researcher Gina Bravo.