Testimonials |
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"It just started to break me down" "Originally from Flin Flon, Manitoba, Samantha Thomas spent two years working as a computer pattern designer in a Winnipeg garment factory. Two years later she's still trying to regain her health. These days Samantha makes most of her own raiment (clothing) by hand and needle." Samatha says: "I was against a wall, there was florescent lighting, the windows were usually covered because of the glare on the [computer] screens, the air conditioner units were blowing cold air. Most of our work was done on the mouse and the mouse wasn't in a place that you could hold your hand comfortably. That's where it all started for me. When I hit that one year mark I started to notice the pain in my back and in my shoulder. You can sit for so long, your body knows how long you can sit for, and after that you have to get up. If you break your leg at a job it's obvious, but it was so gradual what happened to me. I started to see different doctors: chiropractors, an acupuncturist, massage therapist, a physical therapist, and a doctor. I was going to the chiropractor three times a week. I would do yoga 45 minutes to an hour and a half every night on top of all the therapies. It just started to break me down. I could hardly sit up to read my son a story. It started to affect him for sure. He was rubbing my back a lot. Things that normally wouldn't set me off would. I couldn't handle things anymore. It wasn't normal. I used to go to sleep at night and I would be up I guess the maximum was about eight times a night because the pain in my back was so bad. I wasn't remembering things. I didn't want to be around people, just being out socially wasn't comfortable anymore. Even now my back went out this morning. I often wonder if it's ever going to go away. This isn't just happening in third world countries it's happening in Canada, in your own province, in your own city. Nobody knows it's happening, nobody goes in there, nobody sees, only the people who work there. I didn't know a lot about my rights but I'd usually voice if there was something not right going on. A lot of times I was the only one who would speak up and actually say something. It was mostly women sewing. Their conditions were horrible. I know what it's like to sew, it's not an easy job. The majority were not from Canada and they used to say to me that it was easier for me to say something because I was English and I was from Canada..." http://www.unpac.ca/economy/samantha.html "Workers who speak out or try to defend others are especially targeted" "I came to this country nearly twenty years ago from hong kong http://www.ainfos.ca/04/mar/ainfos00393.html  Crowded sleeping conditions for migrant workers (justicia4migrant.org, '06) |
"They've dubbed the building 'Vietnam' " "Stepping through the narrow doorway of the grey, barracks-like place Everton calls home, you pass through flimsy walls of wood panelling until you're standing in the centre of the small room he shares with another man. Arms hanging straight at your sides, your fingers can touch the mattresses of both makeshift beds. Two ropes draped with an orange T-shirt and navy pants traverse the low ceiling at oblique angles. The rest of the men's belongings are crammed into a corner closet or scattered over their beds. Down a tight passageway is a similar room, this one with three beds. To go to the bathroom, shower or even have a drink of water, Everton has to walk 10 metres to a separate building. That's also where he launders his clothes, by hand. To make a phone call, it's a 1.5-km walk into town. These two-room units are the luxury accommodation on the property, housing about 30 people in seven buildings. The less fortunate make do with one of 30 bunk beds arranged open-dormitory style under one roof. To create the illusion of privacy, the men here have strung sheets around the lower bunks and between some of the beds. They've dubbed the building "Vietnam." And when you take in the high chain-link fence topped with barbed wire that surrounds their lodgings, the imagery that name connotes resonates even more deeply. But this is not the Third World. It's not even the southern United States. It's Canada's own Deep South , the swath of southwestern Ontario stretching between Windsor in the west and Niagara Falls in the east. And the men are foreign nationals, invited into the country under the seasonal agricultural workers program (SAWP), Canada's answer to the century-old predicament of never being able to find enough workers to keep our farms running. For farmers, the program is a boon, a way to get relatively cheap, reliable labour and stay in business. For workers, too, there are positives, most notably a job, and one paying more than they'd make at home. But increasingly there are concerns about the fairness of the program and the employees' lack of rights." http://www.encyclopediecanadienne.ca/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=M1ARTM0012668
"Working in Lincare is like working in a sweatshop" "A Scarborough commercial laundry facility that holds contracts with numerous GTA hotel chains has been subjecting its over one hundred employees to working conditions akin to a sweatshop, according to workers at the Lincare commercial laundry. The workers, many who are new immigrants, allege they regularly fail to get paid, and face dangerous, life-threatening working conditions. Last week the company fired six workers who were involved in a union organizing drive with UFCW Canada. 'Working in Lincare is like working in a sweatshop,' states Parvathy Thamboo, one of the workers recently fired from the Lincare laundry after spearheading the union drive. She had worked at Lincare for more than five years, where she says, 'the working conditions are very dangerous. There is no safety equipment and the machines don't have proper safety guards.' 'Many of us have been seriously injured on the job. Some women have had their hair caught in machines, other have injured their limbs after being stuck in between heavy equipment,' recounts Thamboo. Safety is one issue. Getting paid is another. 'Lincare routinely issues cheques that bounce,' explains Kumanan Thurairajah, a nine-year veteran at Lincare who was also recently fired for being involved in the union drive. 'The company owes most of us workers thousands of dollars in back-pay, and a few of us have been evicted from our homes because we haven't received our wage.' 'It is outrageous that workers at a company in our backyard can be subjected to these kinds of sweatshop conditions,' says Kevin Shimmin, a UFCW Canada national representative and organizer. 'Many of the workers at Lincare are new immigrants who came here for a better way of life - not to be exploited and treated as second class citizens. Lincare is a very successful company that holds contracts a number of major hotels in the Toronto area. It is totally unacceptable that Lincare refuses to pay their employees their salaries, not to mention overtime and vacation pay.' Lincare supplies services to a number of major hotel properties and chains in the GTA including Marriot, Best Western, Novotel, the Westin Prince, and the Fairmount Royal York. UFCW Canada is the largest private sector union in Canada representing more than 250,000 workers from coast to coast." http://www.canadianbusiness.com/markets/marketwire/article.jsp?content=20091117_193511_18_ccn_ccn  A bathroom that is used by migrant workers (justicia4migrant.org, '06) |
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