The petition
What Happened
-In the fall of 2006, Spanish speaking Mexican employees working for Mayfair farms in Portage la Prairie MB signed union cards. Some of the workers had landed in jail following a dispute unrelated to their jobs; the UFCW allegedly promised them legal help if they joined the union.
-The documents that the workers signed were written only in English.
-The Spanish speaking workers signed a declaration recanting their support once they learned what the papers that they had signed said. This declaration was rejected by the labour board as the Mexican employees had not submitted the declaration on a proper form. The workers hired a lawyer to submit the paperwork correctly, at which time the board rejected the recantation stating that it had been submitted too late.
-The Mexican workers returned to Mexico for the winter.
It was only after signing the union cards that the workers found out some pretty basic facts about joining a union. Only after signing did they become aware that they would be obliged to pay union dues, that the union would bargain for them to have days off, and that the union would most likely ask the farm to pay them overtime.
Days off and overtime pay are points that on the surface may seem like positives, but the Mexican employees most certainly do not see it that way. Many of the employees rely on their Canadian incomes as the sole source of money for themselves and their families for the full year. They come to Canada in the spring hoping to work as many hours as possible to bank as much Canadian money as they can to send home. Days off mean days with no pay, which means less money to send home to the family. Farmers requiring to pay their workers time and a half for overtime will most certainly ensure that no employee works over 40 hours per week, decreasing the migrant workers' wages even more.
I had the workers who could write, and were willing to participate, fill out a questionnaire. This is what they told me.
Unanimously, all of the 38 workers who filled in the survey indicated the reason that they and their colleagues signed the union cards were to help their friends who were in legal trouble.
Those workers who chose to elaborate further stated (translated, with my explanations in square brackets):
"The union representative [Lincon] had us all sign the papers. He told us that he would get us a good lawyer. The lawyer never appeared. It was the Canadian Government that gave us a lawyer. Lincon took his signed papers and took off. We need someone to help us. We’ve gone to the government of Canada, the human rights commission. The fate of our future is in your hands."
- Heladio Martinex Perez
"I have been a temporary worker for Mayfair farms for 7 years now and we have never needed either a sindicate or a union. I am a worker who just wants to be able to work to the terms of my contract. The representative Lincon deceived us. He promised to help us with the law, and he didn’t at all."
- Noe Antonio Aguilar Guzman
"The reason that I signed the documents is because I was given false information. I never thought that it was for a Union. I thought that the documents were to remove our friends from jail. We were tricked. I don’t want the union, it would affect me lot. I would be able to work less, and I would not be able to help my family as much with good food and education. I come to Canada to work, not to have vacation days! I DON’T WANT THE UNION AT MAYFAIR FARMS."
- Sergio Lopez Rosas
We petition the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba as follows
1. To request that the Labour Minister consider requiring union documentation be presented in workers' language.
2. To request that, when such requirement is made, the Labour Minister further require re-certification under the new standard of any workplace where prior certification did not meet the new standard. If such re-certification does not take place within one month of the regulation's coming into force, the union be decertified at that workplace.
Though this electonic petition will help to show support, it is not legally admissable to the Legislature. Please click on the link to the right to download and print off a copy of the petition to sign in ink and mail to the address provided, or drop them off at my shop located at the corner of Waverley and Bishop Grandin.
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