CUPE Local 3913

Posts Tagged ‘articles’

VINCE TALOTTA/TORONTO STAR

The following is an article from The Toronto Star about the hugely problematic Temporary Foreign Worker Program run by the Government of Canada.

Sign the petition to call on Stephen Harper and the Government of Canada to protect the rights of migrant workers in this country.

How we’re creating an illegal workforce

Controversial federal program brings in foreigners for temporary jobs, but leaves them ripe for abuse

By Sandro Contenta & Laurie Monsebraarten from the Toronto Star – Nov 1, 2009

Foreigners in Canada on temporary work permits are being pushed into Toronto’s underground economy by the recession and a controversial federal program that leaves them vulnerable to abuse, a Star investigation has found.

They include people like Tony, a 29-year-old Honduran, who left his Alberta farm job after complaining of long hours and lower-than-promised wages. He rode a bus to Toronto in mid-September with two fellow Hondurans from the same farm. He now works illegally renovating homes, and his friends work illegally cleaning schools.

“I want to be someone, to do something with my life – that’s why I’m here,” says Tony, who fears being deported.

Also citing employer abuse is a Salvadoran couple fired from their Halifax hotel jobs when the woman got pregnant. They moved here to look for work in September. Read the rest of this entry »

by Jennifer Moore

Two months to the day after President Manuel Zelaya was ousted from power by the Honduran military and shipped off to Costa Rica in his pyjamas, the resilience and vitality of popular opposition to the coup is making history in this Central American society of economic extremes.

Since June 28th when Hondurans were denied the opportunity to participate in a mere opinion poll that had nothing to do with extending Zelaya’s term, thousands have been arbitrarily detained, dozens beaten and at least ten people killed by repressive state forces while press freedoms continue to be seriously curtailed.

Despite this – or rather as a direct outcome – day after day people keep turning out to marches, caravans, concerts, religious masses and meetings in order to demand an immediate return to constitutional order, the restitution of their democratically-elected president and renewed efforts toward greater equality and inclusion beginning with constitutional reforms.

During the 61st march yesterday, sandwiched between competing speaker systems belting out songs calling for Zelaya’s return, Bertha Cáceres from the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) and a leader in the National Front Against the Coup emphasized that the current pro-democracy struggle is an unprecedented achievement that has both surprised and impressed her.

Cáceres highlighted the strong and creative participation of women, youth, artists, indigenous and Afro-Hondurans which she indicates has been central to the momentum they have generated. She also comments on the extent of activity taking place around the country, observing “people of faith meeting for mass who are challenging the hierarchy of the Catholic and Evangelical churches [that have come out in support of the coup],” as well as residents of marginal neighbourhoods who are meeting to analyze the coup in community centres or within their water services committees.
Read the rest of this entry »