Justice for the exploited and unpaid migrant workers who made this year’s World Cup possible.

Digital illustration of a migrant worker in a construction uniform and safety vest. He’s sitting on a bucket and there’s a deflated soccer ball on the ground. Text reads, ‘Justice for the exploited and unpaid migrant workers who made this year’s World Cup possible. ‘]

The Canadian and Jamaican governments are investigating allegations that an Ontario farm sent a group of Jamaican migrant workers home after they held a one-day strike to protest what they described as substandard living conditions.

Pearnel Charles Jr., Jamaica's minister of labour, says he met four of the five workers in question after a local newspaper reported they'd been expelled from Canada as "payback" for their work stoppage, and for blowing the whistle about their treatment to the media. 

"They expressed to me that they were disappointed with being returned early, which I think is normal and understandable. And they had some questions as to exactly what the reasons were," Charles Jr. told As It Happens guest host Katie Simpson.

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Tagging: @politicsofcanada

Different red state, same old Republican bullshit.

Republicans and Ron DeSantis are on a mission to turn Florida into a shithole state with an oceanfront view.

"California will begin paying for free legal help with immigration for undocumented farmworkers who are involved in state investigations of wage theft or other labor violations, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office announced this week.

The $4.5 million pilot program will provide qualifying farmworkers with referrals for legal help with their immigration status. 

Roughly half of California’s farmworker population is believed to be undocumented. Fear of deportation and difficulties finding jobs can discourage workers from filing labor complaints or serving as witnesses in cases alleging unsafe work temperatures, wage theft, or employer retaliation for unionizing, officials said...

Respecting immigrant rights

Farmworkers in labor investigations who qualify for the new state program will receive a direct referral to legal services organizations that already offer immigration services, such as the Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County or the United Farm Workers Foundation, which spoke in support of the program. 

The free legal services workers could receive include case review, legal advice and representation by an attorney, according to Newsom’s office...

Deferred deportation

State officials said the pilot program aligns with a new Biden administration policy that makes it easier for undocumented workers who are victims of labor rights violations to request deferred action from deportation. Because the federal Department of Homeland Security can’t respond to all immigration violations, it exercises “prosecutorial discretion” to decide who to try to deport.

State officials said they won’t ask for workers’ immigration status, but noncitizens granted this deferred action may be eligible for work authorization.

This year, California labor department officials began supporting undocumented workers’ requests for prosecutorial discretion or deferred action from federal immigration officials, including when employers threaten workers with immigration enforcement to prevent workers from cooperating with state investigators. 

“The Department of Industrial Relations’ Labor Commissioner’s Office … was the first state agency to request deferred action from DHS for employees in an active investigation, and that request was successful,” Hickey said. “This is an important process for undocumented workers to be aware of.”"

-via CalMatters, July 21, 2023

Feb 2021

In 2019 it found that Qatar’s intense summer heat is likely to be a significant factor in many worker deaths. The Guardian’s findings were supported by research commissioned by the UN’s International Labour Organization which revealed that for at least four months of the year workers faced significant heat stress when working outside.

Qatar continues to “drag its feet on this critical and urgent issue in apparent disregard for workers’ lives”, said Hiba Zayadin, Gulf researcher for Human Rights Watch. “We have called on Qatar to amend its law on autopsies to require forensic investigations into all sudden or unexplained deaths, and pass legislation to require that all death certificates include reference to a medically meaningful cause of death,” she said.

those stadiums were built in blood

Every summer, people flock to Maryland to eat blue crabs. Named for their brilliant sapphire-colored claws, blue crab is one of the most iconic species in the Chesapeake Bay. The scientific name for blue crabs, Callinectes sapidus, means “beautiful savory swimmer.” In restaurants and at home, diners pile steamed and seasoned blue crabs in the middle of a table covered in paper. Then, using small mallets, knives, bare hands and fingers, they break open the hard shells and extract the juicy meat from inside. It is a messy experience, especially with Old Bay seasoning and beer known locally as Natty Bohs, one that is quintessentially Maryland. Though many people know firsthand how difficult it is to pick and clean crab meat, they often don’t realize how crab is processed when it is sold in stores already picked and cleaned. Most people also may not know that crab picking is a livelihood for many, mainly poor, women. For generations, African American women from Maryland’s rural, maritime communities labored for crab houses on the Eastern Shore. Today, fewer than 10 crab houses are left on the Shore. The workforce consists of mainly female migrant workers from Mexico who do the grueling job of picking crab for eight to nine hours a day, from late spring to early fall. They make on average of US$2.50 to $4.00 for every pound of crabmeat they pick. That pay is roughly one-tenth to one-twelfth of the wholesale price of one pound – or about a half of a kilogram – of the seafood they pick, which is $35 to $44. In comparison, the Maryland minimum wage is $13.25 an hour, while the federal minimum wage is $7.25.

Racism at heart of failure to tackle deadly heatwaves

Jeff Goodell, author of The Heat Will Kill You First, reports that migrant workers bearing the brunt of record-breaking temperatures on farms, construction sites, and delivery are not guaranteed lifesaving measures like water and shade breaks because they are considered expendable.

"To be blunt about it," he says, "the people most impacted by heat are not the kind of voting demographic that gets any politician nervous. They’re unsheltered people, poor people, agricultural and construction workers. They’re not seen as humans who need to be protected. Racism is absolutely central to the government’s failure to protect vulnerable people."

more in the Guardian story: X

"May day 2024: You're owed something in this world, so rise up!

We don't need parties or concerts, but basic rights and dignity.

Against racism

Against genocide

Against patriarchy

Against exploitation

Against capitalism which creates and reinforces these evils

We have nothing to lose by uniting to fight for a better world!"

Revealed: allegations of abuse and captivity without pay at UAE’s lucrative recruitment agencies | Women's rights and gender equality | The Guardian

Abuse within the UAE’s kafala system, which ties low-paid migrant workers’ legal status to their employers, has been well-documented. Domestic workers are particularly vulnerable to abuse within their employers’ home, and those who do leave without their employers’ permission face criminal charges for “absconding”, punishable by fines, arrest, detention and deportation. Less well known are the conditions within the recruitment centres where women are kept, sometimes for months, until an employer is found.

Jamaican migrant farm workers in Niagara Region wrote an open letter to Jamaica's Ministry of Labour requesting more support in the face of what they call "systematic slavery," days before a migrant worker died in Norfolk County.

Garvin Yapp, 57, of St. James, Jamaica, was killed on Sunday in an accident with a tobacco harvester at Berlo's Best Farm in Norfolk County, two hours southwest of Toronto.

[...]

Two other Jamaican workers and a Mexican worker have died this week as well, according to Migrant Workers Alliance for Change (MWAC).

'Feels like we are in prison'

"As it currently stands, the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP) is systematic slavery," the workers wrote in their open letter.

[...]

Workers wrote they were scared of sharing their grievances with Samuda directly for fear of being kicked out of the SAWP. They also said that workers from Mexico and the Philippines share the same grievances.

Workers described housing conditions as so poor that rats eat their food. They live in crowded rooms with zero privacy with cameras, and lack dryers to dry their clothes after it rains, they wrote.

"It feels like we are in prison," the letter reads.

On working conditions, workers wrote they're "treated like mules" and punished for not being quick enough. They said they're exposed to dangerous pesticides without adequate protection, and their bosses are verbally abusive.

"They physically intimidate us, destroy our personal property, and threaten to send us home," the letter reads.

"This is very much the reality of the migrant farm worker program in this country," MWAC's executive director Syed Hussan said. "Working in farms in Canada is a human rights disaster."

Malaysia intends to bring in 500,000 workers from 15 different Asian countries to solve its labour shortage issues in less-favourable sectors like plantations, agriculture, and construction.

The Covid-19 outbreak has caused over 700,000 foreign employees to return to their home countries, according to Human Resources Minister V. Sivakumar, therefore the labour crisis needs to be resolved right away in order to prevent any negative effects on the economy.

However, human rights activists have argued that the government must halt this process and instead focus on improving the working conditions of migrant workers who are already in the country, which does not seem to be getting better.

World Bank data indicates that there are around 2.9 to 3.3 million migrant workers in Malaysia, of which roughly 1.5 million have irregular employment.

The remaining millions are undocumented, without protection. But most of them are employed and continue to make a significant contribution to the economy and the nation’s future.

Many of these workers, be it documented or not, suffer injustices such as being underpaid, at risk of abuse and confined to poor living conditions despite calls for better migrant worker rights based on strong economic and humanitarian grounds. The abuses were further exacerbated during the pandemic.

In fact,  the US State Department downgraded Malaysia to Tier 3, which is the worst category, in its 2020 Trafficking in Persons Report. It also imposed punitive measures on firms allegedly involved in slave labour by banning imports from glovemakers Top Glove and Supermax, as well as two major palm oil conglomerates.

Malaysia remains in Tier 3 as of last year.

The secretary-general of Socialist Party Malaysia (PSM), Sivarajan Arumugam, told Coconuts the conditions for migrant workers have not improved despite many complaints from workers and civil society.

“Their grouses have not been rectified. Thus PSM would strongly call for a halt on all migrant labour intake until all reforms are executed,” he said.

PSM often works on labour rights issues affecting both local and foreign workers. It has also helped some of these individuals win court cases against their employers.

Sivarajan also highlighted that, during former minister M. Kulasegaran’s time as the Human Resources Minister (MOHR) under Pakatan Harapan, he had instructed an independent commission to study the situation of migrant workers and submit reports to the government.

However, he said the report has been kept under wraps.

“We reiterate that the government should focus on implementing the proposed reforms proposed by the government’s own reports and other CSO’s instead of continuing to bow down to the pressures of the employers that they are crying that they need migrant labour urgently,” he added.

Sivarajan shared with Coconuts a copy of the reform proposal.

Some of these proposed reforms include only allowing the MOHR to manage and monitor all matters relating to migrant workers, speedy initiatives and policies to eradicate the involvement of private agents and companies in the recruitment and supply of workers, and the abolishment of debt bondage by removing recruitment fees charged to workers.

Glorene Daas, executive director of Tenaganita, a human rights non-profit organisation, said the ministry needs to address the lack of personnel at the labour department in order for it to carry out labour inspections more efficiently.

“During high-level government meetings between the labour department and the ministry, the issue is always that they do not have enough personnel, so what are we doing about it is the next question. If we want to address this effectively and seriously, they need to think through how to increase the labour department’s personnel,” she said.

Meanwhile, Su Shern, executive director of Project Liber8, echoed Sivarajan’s concerns.

“I think first we need to acknowledge that the exploitation of migrant workers in Malaysia is still not being addressed. The fact is that migrant workers are still facing long working hours, exploitative conditions, withholding of wages, etc. and I think these are things that we hear and see all the time,” she told Coconuts.

Project Liber8 is a non-profit organisation dedicated to empowering youth to take action against human trafficking, forced labour, exploitation and discrimination among trafficked victims, migrant workers and refugees.

“So what is the government doing currently to ensure we are minimising this and holding the people responsible accountable?” Su said.

Su said she would really love to see the government speak to relevant parties that are working on migrant issues as well as be present on the ground to understand the lived realities.

“Over the years, we’ve seen the government really making an effort in forced labour and trafficking issues but what is equally as important is the priority of ensuring these laws and policies are executed properly too,” she added.

MOHR Minister V. Sivakumar has refused to comment on the matter when contacted by Coconuts.

Behbeh