Centre des Travailleurs et Travailleuses Immigrants / Immigrant Workers Centre (CTI-IWC)

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2010

immigrantworkerscentre — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 16:37:11 +0000

WOMEN OF DIVERSE ORIGINS INVITES YOU TO TWO EVENTS

Saturday, March 6 2010 from 10 am to 5 pm

Back to the Basics

Time: SATURDAY, MARCH 6, 2010 10:00 am to 5:00 pm
Place: CRAC, 6839 Drolet St. (corner Bélanger, Métro Jean-Talon)

Back to the Basics: exchange between member groups of FDO-WDO about our respective campaigns, issues, challenges and victories, large and small. Workshops about future alliance.

Lieu: CRAC, 6839, rue Drolet, Montréal, Québec (Métro Jean-Talon ou Beaubien)

___

Monday, March 8, 2010 at 5:30 pm

DEMONSTRATION IN MONTREAL

Celebrate the centennial of International Women’s Days at the rally in Montreal under the theme: “For a Global Militant Women’s Movement in the 21st Century”

Bring your banners and placards with your demands.

When: Monday, March 8, 2010 @ 5:30 pm
Where: Carré Cabot, Ste-Catherine and Atwater (Métro Atwater)

We have moved to 4755 Van Horne Suite 110

immigrantworkerscentre — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:19:50 +0000

Nous avons déménagé à 4755 Van Horne Suite 110 (Metro Plamondon)

We have moved to 4755 Van Horne, Suite 110

Nos hemos traslado a 4755 Van Horne Oficina 110

View Larger Map

(Français) Les travailleurs agricoles ne méritent pas notre respect

immigrantworkerscentre — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 08:21:31 +0000

par Pierre-Louis Fortin-Legris

Il est un lieu commun qui veut que le marché du travail soit un mutant. Transformations par-ci, mutations par-là. Le milieu agricole n’y échappe pas. Nos cornichons viennent d’Inde et nos terres sont labourées par des Guatémaltèques de passage qui, tels des cornichons, n’ont pas le droit de s’organiser collectivement.

Depuis quelques années, les conditions de vie des travailleurs agricoles saisonniers font l’objet d’une attention soutenue de la part de groupes de défense des droits et de certains syndicats [

A St. Laurent company lauded by the provincial government for its treatment of minorities – and a recipient of nearly $124,000 in government assistance this year to hire, train and keep mainly immigrant workers – unexpectedly closed shop this fall.

Now, the 50 employees who lost their jobs at the beginning of October when Cellulab Inc. shut down want Quebec to come to their aid.

Backed by the Immigrant Workers’ Centre and the United Food and Commercial Workers union, a contingent of the laid-off Cellulab staff met for an hour and a half yesterday with a Montreal representative of Sam Hamad, the minister for employment and social solidarity.

The workers allege that Cellulab president Michel Auger has been increasingly mistreating his employees over the past year, worsening in June when pay became irregular then stopped altogether in August.

Five-year employee Benoît Godbout began to organize his co-workers to join UFCW Local 501 and on Oct. 1, the vast majority signed union cards.

“That day, Michel Auger called me at home to say Cellulab was going bankrupt and not to show up at work the next day,” Godbout recalled yesterday before an information picket was set up outside the Montreal Exchange tower, which houses Hamad’s local office.

The workers are still owed two month’s wages, vacation and termination pay. They also are having difficulty filing for unemployment insurance.

Godbout dismissed Auger’s claim the cellphone repair firm was in financial trouble, noting there was a three-week backlog of contract work for Motorola Inc., LG Electronics Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co.

Hamad attaché Alexandre Boucher confirmed yesterday that Cellulab was given $97,500 between Feb. 23 and Aug. 4 from a government program that helps businesses at risk during the economic slowdown to keep their employees.

Boucher said another $26,000 from Emploi-Québec also went to Cellulab this year to hire five immigrant workers.

Amir Khadir, the MNA for Mercier riding, offered support to the workers in the National Assembly yesterday calling on the ministers of employment and immigration to intervene.

“It’s a matter of dignity for the employees and the state, who were swindled in this whole affair,” he said. “It is unacceptable that it is closing its doors now that they received support from the state.”

In May, Cellulab was the private-sector recipient of the Prix Maurice-Pollack for what Immigration and Cultural Communities Minister Yolande James called its “efforts to bring cultures together and encourage the full participation of immigrants … by capitalizing on the talents and skills of workers of all backgrounds.”

Cellulab was recognized by James for hiring consultants specialized in the development of ethnocultural diversity and adaptation of services in the workplace to make it a stimulating place that took into account the needs and welfare of its employees.

The workers have filed a complaint with Quebec’s labour relations board.

Auger, who is also president of Quebec Multi-Plus Inc. – a non-profit organization with trainers and consultants in intercultural relations, couldn’t be reached for comment yesterday.

mking@thegazette.canwest.com

Family of Four cruelly deported yesterday in Montreal!

immigrantworkerscentre — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 22:41:31 +0000

photo by freda guttman

Family of four cruelly deported
Immigration Canada rushed to expel family before agreement with US expired

Link To photos from Rally on October 29th to stop the deportation of
the Des Roy Family
=> http://picasaweb.google.com/fgNewmail/NewAlbum301009241PM?feat=email#

Montreal, 29 October 2009 — A family of four was deported this morning
after a very painful parting from friends, community members and supporters.

Early this morning, over 150 people gathered in support of Ranjit Dey Roy,
Ratna Rani Dey Roy and their two sons, Swaikot et Swakshar, outside the
Immigration Canada building on St-Antoine street. Tears flowed as community
members and supporters took their leave from the distraught family. Shortly
after 8am, the family was taken into custody by Immigration agents. They
were deported to the United States, where they face undergoing new
immigration proceedings and probable deportation to Bangladesh. The family
is currently in New York.

An agreement between Canada and the United States which had allowed Canada
to deport immigrants to the United States if they had entered Canada from
the US expires tonight at midnight. Immigration officials were apparently
aware of this fact when they rushed to push the family out of the country in
an unusually short time frame. Yesterday, members of Parliament met with
Federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney in Ottawa to request an emergency
stay of deportation for the family, but Kenney refused to show any mercy.

Arriving in Canada as refugee claimants in June 2004, after fleeing
persecution as a religious minority in Bangladesh, the Dey Roy family saw
their refugee application refused in spring 2005. They tried by every means
possible to remain in the country, knowing that deportation would cause them
hardship and suffering. They were finally ordered to report for deportation
after their application for permanent residence on humanitarian and
compassionate grounds was refused on 30 September 2009. The unjust, callous,
and cruel decision to deport the family has destroyed the lives that they
worked so hard to establish in Montreal and forced them into renewed
instability and anxiety.

Nine year old Swakshar was in 3rd grade. The boy entered Quebec at the age
of 4 and has pursued all his schooling in French; he does not write Bengali
nor speak it proficiently. Canada has legal obligations to ensure that the
best interests of a child are duly considered in immigration decisions and
it is
clearly not in the best interests of Swakshar to be uprooted for the second
time in his short life and forced into a situation of instability and
stress.

His older brother Swaikot, who arrived in Canada when he was 14, has since
pursued his studies in French. His studies abruptly ended, before he was
able to obtain his high school certificate, when the family’s immigration
application was refused. He has been working two jobs to help support the
family. Both boys enjoy strong support from their schools, and a petition
was circulated in support of Swaikot at his high school.

Despite the barriers they faced in coming to a new society, and the anxiety
and instability they experienced because of immigration proceedings, both
parents managed to find steady work and to put down roots in Montreal.

Community groups and migrant justice organizations will work to bring the
family back to Canada, but the process is far from certain and takes many
years.

Stop the Deportations! No One Is Illegal

For more information and to support the Des Roy family
Hindu Assocation of Montreal
dharapu@hotmail.com

Immigrant Workers Center
iwc_cti@yahoo.com
www.iwc-cti.ca