Note: This page contains outdated content and may not appear correctly.
Please Click Here to find recent news, events and information from CUPE Ontario.

You may not be aware, but the Federal Government is opening up the Temporary Foreign Worker Program to allow municipalities, the service sector, the construction sector and other industrial sectors to hire migrant or temporary workers.  Last year in Alberta alone, Employers applied for 40,000 temporary worker permits under existing legislation.  Within the past 6 months a large Canadian Coffee Chain has applied for 5000 permits for temporary foreign workers who will by law be exempt from EI and WSIB.
 
Migrant workers in the agricultural sector across Canada have for decades been fighting for the right to unionize.  Any new migrant workers hired under the Federal Government’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program will likely be met with the same barriers to unionization.  In Ontario, UFCW’s Charter challenge against discriminatory laws was recently argued and the decision is pending.
 
We enthusiastically encourage you to join in solidarity with other Canadian unions, labour and immigration lawyers, academics, Human Rights experts and Migrant Worker Advocacy and Support groups at a national conference held in Ottawa from October 24-26, 2008.
 
The Canadian Labour Congress, the Canadian Association of Labour Lawyers/ Association canadienne des avocats du movement syndical (CALL/ACAMS), the University of Ottawa Human Rights and Research Education Centre/ Centre de recherche et d’enseignement sur les droits de la personne and the Institute of Women’s Studies of the University of Ottawa/ Institut d’études des femmes are supporting and coordinating presentations by national and international speakers on how this issue is rapidly changing all sectors of our Canadian workplace environment.
 
Attached is a detailed agenda, conference registration materials, a list of speakers and a list of unionized hotels in Ottawa.  Please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have.
 
Thank you in advance for your support.
 
If you do not think you will be able to attend but know someone or any organization interested in these issues please forward this material to them for their consideration.

 

For more information call 613-594-5100.

 

 

Related Files

Category: 2007-2014 Archives