Action in solidarity with migrant workers: Former workers, organizers, students, and community members hold caravan through Windsor-Essex.

LEAMINGTON, ON: On Sunday June 12 at 1:00 PM, Justicia for Migrant Workers (J4MW), a political collective organizing with migrant agricultural workers in Ontario, will be hosting a caravan that will make stops at farms across Windsor-Essex, Ontario.

The purpose of this caravan is to show solidarity with workers who have done critical organizing work from within farms, and to draw public attention to the ongoing structural issues that impact agricultural workers. Organizers are holding both the provincial and federal government to task for the systemic failures of Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program.

Agricultural workers are exempt from multiple provisions of Ontario’s Employment Standard Act. There are also no industry-specific protections for farmworkers under Ontario’s occupational health and safety legislation. Farmworkers continue to courageously raise concerns regarding both working and living conditions, including cramped housing conditions and disciplinary action when they exert their rights.

Migrant farmworkers, or temporary foreign workers as they are referred to by the federal government, are in Canada on tied work permits. This means their immigration status in Canada is dependent on their employment. These and other issues will be raised throughout the caravan, which is scheduled to start at 1:00 PM on June 12, at the Walmart parking lot in Leamington (304 Erie Street South).

Justicia for Migrant Workers (J4MW) is a volunteer-run political non-profit collective of activists from diverse walks of life (including migrant, labour activists, educators, researchers, and students) based in Toronto, Ontario. J4MW has been organizing with migrant workers for over 20 years.

To contact J4MW:

j4mw.on@gmail.com (Email)

@j4mw (on Twitter)

647-834-4932 (Cellular)