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Cultivating Health, Safety and Justice for Ontario Farm Workers: Towards a Collaborative Action Strategy A primer for the 2015 Canadian Association for Food Studies Assembly Interactive Session 4C: Cultivating Health, Safety and Justice for Ontario Farm Workers: Towards a Collaborative Action Strategy Monday June 1st, 3:30-5pm, Louis Pasteur 154

Please feel free to share this paper with attribution to Weiler & Levkoe.

Introduction Migrant farm workers in Canada are among those most impacted by the environmental, economic and social harms generated by the dominant food system. While they often have considerable firsthand insights into a wide range of food production methods, farm workers hired through Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program face systemic barriers to participating in food system decisions that affect their lives both in Canada and in their sending countries. Issues relating to farm workers must be addressed as Canada’s food movements (including food producers, community-based food practitioners, academics, policy makers and Indigenous groups) work to build a more socially just and ecologically sustainable food system. How can Canada’s food movements advance healthy and dignified livelihoods with migrant farm workers? Our session will delve into this question by drawing on the experiences of panelists and participants representing various spheres of food movements. In addition, we will build on preliminary research on this question conducted through a community-university research partnership with the University of Toronto and Sustain Ontario on how to cultivate health, safety and justice and strengthen decent work for migrant farm workers in Ontario. The idea of ‘decent work1’ refers to employment that ensures a fair and living wage, meets or exceeds safety standards, provides both job stability and the freedom to change jobs, guarantees equitable access to social protections for workers and their families, offers opportunities for personal development and community-building, and allows people to participate in decisions on the worksite and more broadly that affect their lives.

Session Goals 1. Review and provide feedback on initial proposals for advancing decent

livelihoods with migrant farm workers in Ontario;

1 ILO. (2006, July 6). Decent Work FAQ: Making decent work a global goal. International Labour

Organization. Retrieved April 12, 2014, from http://bit.ly/1GKAIuq

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2. Identify key challenges and opportunities for Canada’s food movements, particularly academics, to support efforts promoting farm worker justice; and,

3. Prioritize and delegate specific actionable items among the potential solutions discussed in this session.

Those not attending the CAFS session are welcome to provide feedback on the ideas discussed below to Anelyse Weiler (anelyse.weiler@mail.utoronto.ca) and/or to fill out the survey at the bottom of this page: http://bit.ly/1c3S4Io

Case Study – Know Farm Workers, Know Food: Sustaining Ontario Migrant Labour Livelihoods Frequently, the issue of farm employment is framed as a trade-off between economic viability for farm employers, the well-being of farm workers, or affordable food for eaters. Efforts to promote healthier, more vibrant and sustainable food systems have tended to focus on the interests of farmers and eaters. Since the fall of 2014, Sustain Ontario has been seeking the perspectives of a diverse range of people in order to learn about how they are engaging with equity concerns about migrant farm worker employment. This study focuses on migrants through the federal Temporary Foreign Worker Program, which Canada-wide includes some 39,000 people from Mexico, Jamaica, Guatemala, Thailand, Indonesia and other countries (with about 20,000 in Ontario). Migrant farm workers face specific barriers to accessing healthy, equitable working and living conditions; their ‘permanently temporary’ citizenship status means that they can be repatriated without a grievance procedure for voicing changes they would like to see, or even for becoming ill or injured. Despite our focus on migrants in Ontario, many of the core approaches to advancing health and equity with agricultural workers while addressing reported farm labour shortages bears considerable relevance to other groups of farm workers (e.g. interns, racialized newcomers, family labour) and other regional contexts. While the present economic and political context creates tension between farm labour costs and food prices, we are interested in exploring possibilities for farm labour regimes that better meet the needs of farmers, farm workers and all eaters. How can Ontario’s food movements better ally with existing efforts to promote health and justice with migrant farm workers? What challenges and opportunities exist in pursuing this goal collaboratively or through strategic alliances?

Methods Our data draws from eleven in-depth interviews with stakeholders, along with policy and media analysis and some participant observation. We heard from people representing farmers, public health practitioners, farm industry, government, food system sustainability networks, union labour, and migrant justice organizations. We have not yet spoken directly with farm workers, which we recognize as a key gap in the project thus far.

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Outcomes and next steps As part of Farm Worker Awareness Week (March 24-31st, 2015), Sustain Ontario published a 7-part blog series based on some of the key challenges and possible solutions proposed by interview participants to improve job quality and livelihood self-determination with migrant farm workers. Each blog post was accompanied by a survey and contact information seeking feedback from readers on additional solution ideas, and which solutions they felt should be prioritized. Through small-group workshops (like this one), we are now aiming to identify which solution ideas should be prioritized, and to leverage attendees’ expertise and networks to turn these ideas into an action strategy. Each blog post in the Know Farm Workers, Know Food series is followed by a list of ‘key ideas’ generated by interview participants for improving farm worker livelihoods, which broadly fall under the themes of (a) health and safety; (b) farm worker recruitment and mobility; (c) community-building and social integration; and (d) immigration policy. While ideally participants in this session will review the blog series itself, please at least familiarize yourself with the following summaries of solution ideas from the five substantive blog articles hyperlinked below. Please consider which of the proposed ideas you and your networks might be best positioned to support, and whether you have any major ideas to add:

1. Farm workers and food activism in Canada: Unearthing root causes of injustice

Strengthen the enforcement of social protections migrant farm workers and their advocates have called for. The People’s Food Policy advocates for “Enforced legislation to ensure that non-citizen workers on farms are fairly treated; given decent housing and wages; enjoy safe and humane working conditions; have access to health care and citizenship rights, all without reprisals.”

Prevent exploitation by private recruiters. Ontario can look to Manitoba’s Worker Recruitment and Protection Act as a model for legislation that protects migrants from extortion by private recruiters in Canada who charge a fee for securing a job, which violates some provincial laws and international human rights codes.

Shift the norms and culture among farmers around worker hiring practices and treatment. This can involve establishing workplace-specific policies of pay equity and a progressive seniority system, exploring co-operative forms of ownership, and explicitly valuing the unique skills and experiences migrants bring.

Build awareness and community. By actively welcoming and building friendships with migrant farm workers, those living in Canada’s rural communities year-round can help to reduce the isolation migrants often feel while separated from their families for extended periods.

Address root causes of migration. Poverty and associated political conflict, unemployment, climate change and land dispossession are just some of the reasons migrants need to seek employment abroad. It is important to consider

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Canada’s role in some of the factors that prompt migrants to move (e.g. the North American Free Trade Agreement meant that nearly two million Mexican farmers lost their livelihoods when their country was flooded with subsidized U.S. corn). People in Canada can also build transnational partnerships with grassroots initiatives in migrants’ countries of origin that are working to reduce the need to migrate by strengthening desirable local livelihood options.

2. ‘Hot potatoes’ and migrant farm worker health

Improve the accessibility of rural social services. In particular, food movements can advocate for greater investment from the provincial government in rural mobile clinics as well as Community Health Clinics with Spanish-language translators/interpreters that are open during hours that coincide with workers’ schedules, and in strategic locations such as grocery stores.

Increase the visibility of farm workers in agrifood marketing. For instance, in 2013, the Norfolk County Health Equity Community Committee initiated conversations with Norfolk County officials on increasing the representation of the diverse people involved in local food production within materials that promote the region’s agriculture.

Actively celebrate migrants’ contributions to rural communities, along with their skills and expertise. A health services advocate proposed raising welcome banners each season for migrants and discounts at local businesses. She also suggests farm employers could recommend migrants with decades of expertise in particular crops for collaboration with crop improvement research centres.

Establish a network of migrant farm worker allies. Migrant farm worker advocates recommend convening a network of stakeholders across the province who are already engaged with migrant farm workers in order to collectively take action on evidence-based migrant health and related policy issues.

Facilitate dialogue with employers. Farmers depend primarily on the Consulates for farm worker-related support and may not be aware of existing resources in their communities to support a healthy workforce. One health equity group had success by speaking with its County Agriculture Committee about local migrant resources.

Establish a standardized orientation for migrants. Along with a clear orientation to their health and safety rights, workers could receive a ‘welcome package’ including their health card. This orientation could be offered either by Canada Border Services Agency, SAWP workers’ Consulates, or a third-party non-governmental organization.

3. Cultivating equitable ground in a food system that sows dissension: Farm employer and industry perspectives

Repatriation. End the automatic repatriation of workers who report abuse or need medical treatment for injuries or illness sustained while working in Canada.

Orientation. When workers arrive in Canada, the Canada Border Services Agency should inform each worker about their rights and what to do if

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something goes wrong, with information and relevant hotline numbers summarized in a simple handout that is kept separate from a worker’s passport and visa.

Mobility. A migrant farm worker employer and food activist argued that migrant farm workers should be able to freely choose the farms where they want to work and switch farms more easily when they encounter problems.

Citizenship. The same farmer also proposed that migrant farm workers should have access to citizenship in Canada.

Better protections for workers in non-SAWP streams. Migrant farm workers hired under streams of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program other than the SAWP do not have a liaison/Consulate from their country responsible for mediating between workers and employers; this leaves migrants more vulnerable to abuse.

Skill building for employers. From the experience of a provincial farm industry representative, “One of the challenges, specifically, for farm employers, is that a lot of employers likely had no intention (or training, or skills) to become a boss.” He argued, “The best thing for employees is clear regulations for employers.” To this end, organizations like Sustain Ontario could host workshops for farm employers around true cost accounting, human resource management, and navigating regulations around health, safety and labour.

4. Know farm workers, know food: A food justice and food sovereignty approach

Establish community gardens. These could build community between migrants and non-migrants while supporting some migrants’ existing practices of growing culturally relevant foods for themselves in Canada.

More equitable business models. Explore co-operative business partnerships and more equitable profit-sharing mechanisms with migrant farm workers.

Promote migrant farm workers’ enterprises in their sending countries. Build cross-border partnerships between non-profits and grassroots community groups.

Support migrant farm workers’ interests in farming. Develop incubator farms tailored toward migrant farm workers’ self-identified needs and interests.

Support migrants’ political demands. These include a) access to landed status upon arrival; b) a permanent residency regularization program for those already in Canada, c) equal access to all social programs; d) a fair appeal process before any repatriation order; and e) full protections under the provincial Employment Standards Act and Regulations.

5. Levelling the field: Filling Ontario’s policy gaps in migrant farm worker rights

Change the ‘4 and 4 rule.’ This rule affects farm workers hired under low-skilled agricultural streams of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program other than Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program. Both farmers and migrant justice groups have protested against the rule.

Create access to citizenship. Through the Provincial Nominee Program, the Ontario government could create the option of accessing permanent residency/citizenship for all migrants.

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Create a grievance procedure prior to repatriation. Advocates argue that farm workers should have access to a grievance procedure before being repatriated, and when they sustain an illness or injury in Canada they should be able to undergo full medical treatment and recovery prior to being repatriated.

Strengthen existing health and safety legislation for farm workers. Allocating additional enforcement resources to provincial bodies responsible for the Occupational Health and Safety Act can help to ensure migrants’ rights on paper are ensured in practice.

Eliminate legal and practical exclusions to farm worker unionizing. In Ontario and Alberta, farm workers are excluded from legislation governing collective bargaining and union certification. In BC, the Mexican Consulate was found to have illegally blacklisted migrant farm workers that it suspected of being associated with fully lawful union activities. Such practices have a strong chilling effect on labour organizing.

Food-labeling. The United Food and Commercial Workers Union has been working toward a ‘union-harvested’ product label for vegetables, flowers and trees produced on farms in BC and Quebec where it has established unions. Ontario could also draw on monitoring, marketing and ‘domestic fair trade’ labeling programs from the U.S. such as Food Justice Certification, Food Alliance Certification, and the Agricultural Justice Project (the Farmer Direct Co-op in Saskatchewan is certified with this program). The Florida-based Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ Fair Food Program involves partnerships with retailers and fast-food outlets. To promote ethical institutional food procurement at U.S. universities and colleges, students have drawn on a Real Food Calculator that includes criteria such as living wages for food producers, and the non-profit Meal Exchange is now working to bring this Calculator to Canadian institutions.