Migrant farmworkers at the epicentre

Only a few days after the heartbreaking death of essential worker 31-year-old Mexican Bonifacio Romero, a second young migrant farmworker has died from COVID-19 in the Windsor-Essex region. Nearly one-fifth of confirmed cases in the area have been agricultural workers, local and migrant. As pointed out by local MPP Taras Natyshak (NDP—Essex) in the Legislative Assembly, migrant farm workers are now at the epicentre of this outbreak and deserve the same protections as other workers around the province with “access to PPE; the ability to self-isolate; clean, affordable—and accessible living standards… ”

By the beginning of June over 240 migrant workers in farms across Ontario had tested positive for the virus, with outbreaks reported also in Chatham-Kent, Niagara Region, Elgin County, and Haldimand-Norfolk County. As of May 29, the Workplace and Safety Insurance Board statistics on COVID-19 claims from the agricultural sector recorded 55 claims allowed, <5 denied and 51 pending. An April 2020 open letter by Justice for Migrant Workers urged additional action by the Board to help ensure migrant farmworkers’ access to WSIB benefits during the pandemic.

Arriving healthy, leaving sick (and injured)

Pre-screening and a mandatory 14-days quarantine mean these workers came healthy and caught COVID-19 here. As Niagara’s acting medical officer of health stated in the Globe and Mail (June 3), migrant workers contracted coronavirus from the community, with living in close quarters and difficulty maintaining physical distancing at work additional factors. A recently released report by occupational health scientist Donald Cole details the heightened COVID-19 risks to temporary foreign agricultural workers (TFAW) and provides recommended actions.

Worker advocates, including Legal Assistance of Windsor’s Shelley Gilbert, note that COVID-19 highlights problems that have long existed within the TFAW Program with many migrant workers tied to a single employer, and precarious immigration status which can make them vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. Unions and activist groups have been sounding the alarm for many years, calling for greater migrant protections to deal with longstanding issues including workers’ access to information on employment and safety rights and services, and inadequate enforcement of decent workplace and housing conditions.

As with systemic problems in Ontario’s long-term care system, those resulting from inadequate regulatory protection for migrant workers are well-known and well documented. Premier Ford said Monday that the province will ramp up testing for thousands of migrant workers across the province.

Much more action is needed and now.

Event: to join the launch of Migrant Workers’ Alliance for Change report Unheeded Warnings: COVID-19 & Migrant Workers in Canada on Monday June 8 at 12:00 noon register on Zoom at https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_je1CgEvLRPCEcO-Z3T_rSg

(list updated Jun. 8)