Quebec Steelworkers demand greater rights for exploited temporary foreign workers

SHERBROOKE, Que. – A massive expansion of the federal Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) has further exposed the need for greater rights for exploited workers, members of the Syndicat des Métallos/United Steelworkers union (USW) from across Quebec are asserting on the final day of their 59th Annual Assembly.

The explosion in temporary foreign worker recruitment in Quebec and the ramifications of increased precarious employment are major issues tackled by the 500 Steelworkers activists during their three-day assembly which wraps up today in Sherbrooke.

Temporary foreign workers brought to Canada are confined to a work permit with a single employer and their access to immigration is complex and restricted.

The number of TFWP permit holders in Quebec rose from 7,180 in 2017 to more than 59,000 as of June this year. No longer confined primarily to the seasonal agricultural sector, the use of temporary foreign workers in the province has spread widely to include the manufacturing, metals, wood-processing, food-processing, health-care and hotel sectors.

“As a union, we want to do everything we can to defend these workers and facilitate their full participation in union activity,” said Dominic Lemieux, the Steelworkers union’s Quebec Director.

“We see how the Temporary Foreign Worker Program leads to precarity, with work permits restricted to a single employer and access to permanent immigration being difficult. These workers often are living apart from their families and often have a limited understanding of French, which is essential to ensure their health and safety, among other things,” Lemieux said.

The TFWP and precarious work issues were featured prominently in Lemieux’s comprehensive report to conference delegates, which can be viewed here (French only). The Steelworkers’ Quebec Director also planned to discuss these issues further during a media availability session with journalists at the close of the conference today.

“Our union recognizes that temporary foreign workers are essential for some companies, given the current labour market. But it’s a temporary solution. You can’t address permanent needs with temporary foreign workers indefinitely,” Lemieux said

“With improved definition and guidelines for the use of the TFWP, it could be an effective means of recruiting immigrants. These workers already have a job, they’re learning French and they generally live in communities that are ready to welcome them. Quebec should be looking to invite them to immigrate permanently,” he added.

The union is calling on governments to require that Quebec companies provide paid French-language training and immersion programs to the temporary foreign workers that they employ, and that approval from a local union be required for recruitment of temporary foreign workers.

The union also is concerned about the ramifications of an agreement between the federal and Quebec governments on a pilot project that eliminates a requirement that employers must attempt to hire Quebec workers before turning to international recruitment, and that no longer sets a ceiling on the number of temporary foreign workers in any particular workplace.

“We need to restore the program’s safeguards in order to maintain a balance in Quebec’s labour market. The Quebec pilot project distorts the Temporary Foreign Worker Program and must be scrapped,” Lemieux said.

Solidarity with public-sector workers

Delegates to the Quebec Steelworkers conference also affirmed their unequivocal support to thousands of public-sector workers who have been striking this week to back up demands for better wages and working conditions in the negotiations with the province’s right-wing government.

“In the private sector, we’re negotiating major wage increases to address inflation and labour shortages. Employers know that these improvements are in their interests, if they want to keep their staff,” Lemieux said.

“With ridiculous offers that would require public-sector workers to work for five years to achieve the same wage increases that many of our members are receiving in a single year, the government risks accelerating the exodus of workers to the private sector,” he noted.

“The people who take care of our children, our youth, the elderly and our health-care system do not deserve to be treated this way,” he added.

The Syndicat des Métallos/United Steelworkers, affiliated to the Quebec Federation of Labour, is the largest private-sector union in Quebec, representing more than 60,000 workers in all sectors of the economy.

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