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Meat Packing Monopolies Demand Increase in Temporary Foreign Workers Status for All! Immediate Regularization for All Migrant Workers!The Canadian Meat Council, which represents federally registered meat packers and processing plants, is calling on the federal government to increase the number of temporary foreign workers employers can hire. At present, the number of temporary foreign workers is capped at 10 to 20 per cent of the workforce in each facility. Any plant which hired temporary foreign workers prior to 2014 is capped at 20 per cent. The companies are demanding an increase to 30 per cent of all workers in the plants, or around 10,000 temporary foreign workers. They also want a "Trusted Employer Program" allowing these employers to hire an additional 10 per cent of the workforce as temporary foreign workers -- that is up to 40 per cent. The Canadian Meat Council website states that there are 4,166 empty stations at meat processing plants across the country, of a total workforce of about 34,000. In Quebec, they report a vacancy rate approaching 40 per cent, with vacancy rates of around 20 per cent in Alberta plants, the council reports.
Workers in meat processing were particularly hard hit by COVID-19, with many deaths. They were subject to threats, intimidation and bullying, including the pressure to work sick during the pandemic. It was only the united actions of the workers and their unions which forced the closure of plants where COVID-19 was running rampant, and forced the companies to enact safety measures. The meat and poultry processing industry was already notorious for the inhuman conditions and low wages imposed by neo-liberal globalization, despite the militant resistance of the workers. The dangerous conditions affecting workers' health and safety did not begin with COVID-19, but it did put a spotlight on them. Breakneck line speeds were, and remain, a big contributor to the high rate of workplace injuries and illnesses long before COVID-19. The meat packing giants rely heavily on the most vulnerable workers including refugees and undocumented workers in the U.S. and refugees and workers recruited through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program in Canada. This is the deliberate and intentional neo-liberal model, which relies on the state to act as a human trafficker. An example is the JBS plant in Brooks, Alberta. When U.S. Tyson bought the plant in the early 1990's, which is now owned by Brazilian company JBS, it expanded from about 500 workers to its present 2,800 workers in a city which at the time had a population of 12,000. Brooks now has a population of about 16,000 people. There is no way that workers could be found for such an expansion in Brooks and surrounding communities. It is hardly a coincidence that one of the planned destinations for settlement of Afghan refugees is Brooks, along with other cities in Alberta with meat and poultry processing plants.
The ruling elite divides the people into categories such as Canadians, migrant workers with a path to permanent residency, migrant workers with no path to permanent residency, undocumented workers in a state of civil death, and so on, in order to super-exploit those accorded fewer rights. Not only must this demand of the meat packing giants be rejected, but the Canadian state must be held accountable for its role in human trafficking and denial of the human rights of migrant workers. The Trudeau government claims that it is offering a "path to permanent residency" for workers in this sector through programs such as the Agri-Food Immigration Program. However, the programs serve the needs of the rich to attract workers despite their horrendous record of abuse and negligence, while only a few workers will be accepted as permanent residents. This shows the need to immediately regularize all migrants, refugees and undocumented people in the country and provide them with full immigration status now without exception. The solution lies in affirming the rights of all. Status for All! is the demand of migrant workers, migrant advocacy organizations and the Canadian working class.
This article was published in Article Link:   Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca |
Low
wages are an integral part of the neo-liberal
model. In 1984, an entry
level job at the Brooks plant, then known as
Lakeside packers, paid
$12.00 an hour, $26.25 in 2021 dollars. The
starting wage in 2021 is
$17.95 to $24.60 for production jobs,
depending on the skill level and
training and education required. Wages remain
far below pre
neo-liberal globalization levels, despite the
long battle to unionize
and the militant strike of 2005 in which the
workers from Sudan played
a leading role.