Migrant agricultural workers deserve better
We are members of support groups in two communities in rural Ontario raising their voices against dire threats facing our migrant agricultural worker neighbours.
On June 28, one of us presided over a Catholic memorial mass for Juan Lopez Chaparro. He died after contracting the COVID-19 virus while working at a farm near Simcoe. The father of four children, he came from Mexico to support his family, who asks us to remember him as a “hardworking man” and a “man of peace.”
More than 200 other migrant workers at this farm tested positive for COVID-19. A majority of new infections in Ontario are among these workers.
Most are impoverished people of colour from countries such as Mexico and Jamaica. Some employers require them to work before completing their quarantines. However, workers who finished their quarantine, and then caught the disease, were infected after working in Canada.
Many agricultural workers cannot practise social distancing and many have to work without masks and personal protective equipment. Typically, they live in close quarters, sleeping in bunkhouses with several bunk beds to a room, eating in crowded cooking areas and sharing bathrooms, contributing to high risk of transmission.
Ontario’s policy multiplies these dangers. Workers who test positive, but are asymptomatic, must work. No other group of workers in Canada has to work when tested positive.
This protocol contradicts Ottawa’s science-based position that those who test positive should not work. Hundreds of health professionals signed an open letter to Ontario’s chief medical officer, noting that it is a “demonstrated health risk” to workers and the communities in which they work.
It’s too late to save the lives of Lopez Chaparro or Bonifacio Eugenio Romero and Rogelio Munez Santos, two more agricultural workers who died from COVID-19, but it’s not too late to demand that our governments save the lives of others.
We know agricultural employers who do their best to protect workers from the virus. The problem is that workers who have better conditions are the lucky few. Governments must enforce decent work and living standards for workers.
The National Farmers’ Union Ontario is calling for “permanent resident status” to provide these workers rights to live and work here, together with other rights Canadian workers enjoy, including health care and other employee benefits.
Our community group supports the workers in Lynden and Burford, Ont. We’re a diverse bunch of neighbours and friends; farm workers, farmers, doctors, students, faith leaders, nurses, home makers, retired folks, teachers and librarians. We make community meals, sometimes for almost 100 of these workers who help put on the dinners and grow much of the food.
Most agricultural workers in our area are Catholics, so we host a much-appreciated Catholic mass in Spanish at our local United Church.
Each September we celebrate Mexican Independence Day together. We sing the Mexican national anthem loud enough to shake the church walls.
We collect used bikes and clothing, do food drops and organize English classes. Our librarians provide library cards, books and films in Spanish and free internet services to help our friends keep in touch with their families.
The doctor on our team provides medical support. A local farmer praises our clinic for giving “medical services offered and covered by OHIP without having to go through farm management, giving them greater freedom, control over their own needs, and privacy.” Many employers deport agricultural workers when they report injuries or illness.
Our friends deeply miss their families in Mexico. We all talk about what they’re doing, funny things they say, like friends do.
It’s up to all of us to protect our working neighbours. Call your local municipal councillor and your provincial and federal parliamentary representatives. Ask them to ensure our food is produced safely without putting lives at risk. Find ways to be hospitable to all our neighbours, including those whose humanity some of our politicians deny, endangering their lives.