Each year approximately 400 Mexican men, migrant labourers under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP), work on farms in Manitoba. Workers spend up to eight months in Canada, returning year after year for the agricultural season. These labourers perform physically strenuous work on vegetable farms and in greenhouses—jobs that most Canadians prefer not to do.
A new report from CCPA-Manitoba draws on a research project undertaken by The Migrant Worker’s Solidarity Network (MWSN), a group that interacts with and advocates for these workers. Migrant Voices: Stories of Agricultural Migrant Workers in Manitoba combines the voices of the men with whom the MWSN interacts with background information about the SAWP—and explains how globalization and free trade agreements end up producing a two-tiered labour force in Canada.
Read more in the full report.
CCPA not only does first-rate research; it also connects with the real world by putting powerful information in the hands of advocacy groups and by presenting intelligent, progressive ideas in the media. It is a BC jewel and I urge everyone to support it.
— Kathleen Ruff, founder, RightOn Canada