Centre des travailleurs et travailleuses immigrants / Immigrant Workers Centre (CTI-IWC)

Sunday May 20: Mayworks Celebration

immigrantworkerscentre — Mon, 14 May 2012 03:40:30 +0000

MayWorks! Celebrating migrant worker struggles through the arts

Sunday May 20, 2012
5:30 pm- 9:30 pm
Centre William Hingston
419 St. Roch
Metro Parc, or bus 80

The Immigrant Workers Centre will be hosting its’ 6th annual MayWorks! event, a family-friendly festival celebrating working class movements in theater, music, words, and song. MayWorks! is held on the occasion of May Day- the real Labour Day- which commemorates the struggle of working people around the world.

Historically, May Day has always been rooted in migrant struggles. Immigrant workers were on the frontlines at the time of the Haymarket demonstrations in 1886, when thousands of workers and families- many of them Polish, German, and Czech immigrants- took to the streets to call for an eight-hour work day. In 2006, over two million marched across the United States to stand in solidarity with undocumented people and reclaim May Day for immigrant workers. This year, despite the institutionalization of precarious work through temporary foreign worker programs, the rise of temporary placement agencies, the advent of austerity measures, and the criminalization of migrants and refugees, immigrant workers are continuing to fight for justice and dignity.

Join us for an evening of food, music, and performances to highlight our victories and celebrate our struggles . The event will also feature a screening of “An End to Immigration?”, a documentary film directed by Marie Boti and Malcolm Guy that charts the experiences of migrant workers under the temporary foreign worker program and calls into question the future of the immigration system in Canada as we know it.

Admission is free. Donations are welcome.

Venue is wheelchair accessible and childcare will be provided on-site.
Bring your kids! All are welcome!

For more information:

Tel: 514-342-2111
Email: iwc_cti@yahoo.com
Website: www.iwc-cti.ca

May 26: March for Status for all!

immigrantworkerscentre — Mon, 14 May 2012 02:19:32 +0000

STATUS FOR ALL!
March for justice and dignity for all migrants and refugees

SATURDAY, MAY 26, 2012
Gathering at NOON
Jean Talon & Boyer, just east of métro Jean-Talon
MONTREAL

We live here! We work here! We’re staying here!
We march together to demand an end to deportations and detentions, and in opposition to the double punishment of migrants with criminal records. We demand Status for All, and organize for a “Solidarity City” for all residents of Montreal.
A child-friendly march. Bring your kids!
Get in touch about any accessibility needs.

WHY WE MARCH
This year, we march in opposition to the Conservative government’s relentless attacks on people here and abroad. We take to the streets to assert our dignity as workers, students, refugees, immigrants, and queers.
We reject the militarization of borders, the criminalization of migrants, the institutionalization of wage-slavery through temporary worker programs, and the dominant xenophobic and racist ideology. We also denounce Bill C-31, the “Refugee Exclusion Act”, an immigration law that jails asylum seekers, entrenches a two-tier refugee system discriminating against the majority based on their nationality, and gives the Immigration Minister enormous discretionary powers to take away people’s permanent residency after they have been granted refugee status. This law advocates intrusive biometrics data collection on all migrants in the country, and gives increased powers of arrest and detention to border guards that will affect tourists, permanent residents, students and refugees alike. It will also force many more people to live underground, with no access to labor standards or essential services like healthcare and education.

The march is organized in support of four main demands:

STATUS FOR ALL! We demand a full, comprehensive and ongoing regularization program for all people living in Montreal, Quebec and Canada who do not have full status (ie. permanent residence or citizenship). Simply put, Status for All means that all residents of Canada will get the documentation they need so they can access basic services and the same rights as anyone else. Status for All means we struggle and organize so that all residents, regardless of their origins, can have full dignity as human beings.

NO TO DEPORTATIONS! We stand in solidarity with those who struggle to resist their deportations and forced removals. We denounce the violence of deportations that breaks up families and uproots people from their communities. We believe that everyone has the right to migrate, the right to resist forced displacement, and the right return to their homelands if they so choose.

NO TO DETENTIONS! On any given day in Canada, there are upwards of 500 people in immigration detention centres, including up to 100 individuals and families at the Centre de prevention de l’immigration de Laval. We demand the immediate release of all detainees in immigration detention facilities, and organize for the closing of all detention centres.

NO TO DOUBLE PUNISHMENT! “Double punishment” is the term used to describe the unjust policy used against non-citizens who face deportation after being punished for a criminal conviction. Double punishment is often the direct result of racial profiling. The reality of double punishment in our communities often provokes feelings of shame and isolation, due to the stigma of a criminal conviction. We aim to break this isolation by taking a clear stance against double punishment, to expose this injustice, and to support the individuals fighting to remain with their families, friends and community here in Montreal. We believe that double punishment is an extension of the prison-industrial-complex that profits from the criminalization and incarceration of entire populations.
—–
We are also demonstrating to affirm a SOLIDARITY CITY in Montreal:
For thousands of undocumented migrants across the country cities such as Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver are sweatshops. Immigrants and refugees work the most precarious and dangerous jobs. The Canadian economy cannot survive without this work force that is exploited due to the lack of permanent status and the threat of forced removal. Instead of the city being a sweatshop, we organize to build a Solidarity City.
A Solidarity City is the creation of a community that rejects a system that engenders poverty and precarity, not solely for immigrants and refugees, but also for other Montrealers confronting these same realities. We are opposing fear, isolation and division and we strike back with solidarity, organized mutual aid, and direct action.
The “Solidarity City” campaign is an attempt to generalize and broaden some key organizing principles that have been applied in migrant justice work in Montreal: networking and unifying around common and straightforward demands; practicing autonomous mutual aid and solidarity in contrast to charity or service approaches; holding decision-makers accountable for their actions and policies; and using direct action to achieve justice
All individuals and groups in Montreal can be part of contributing to and building a Solidarity City by providing support to undocumented residents, and by linking your efforts to our larger campaigns for social justice. Get in touch to learn more.
—–
HOW YOU CAN SUPPORT OUR EFFORTS:
* ENDORSE: By endorsing our demonstration and campaign you are agreeing with our demands and you will help to publicize our events within your networks.
* PUBLICIZE & PROMOTE: We have posters, flyers, as well as e-mail callouts, in French, English and Spanish. Get in touch about getting access to our publicity materials, or to join one of our door-to-door outreach teams in Côte-des-Neiges, Parc Extension, Villeray, St-Michel & Hochelaga.
* DONATE: We are an all-volunteer effort and rely on modest donations to sustain our campaign. You can donate by making a cheque out to “Solidarité sans frontières” and include “Status for All” in the memo line. You can mail your cheques to:
Solidarity Across Borders
1500 de Maisonneuve Ouest, #204
Montreal, QC H3G 1N1
Contact us if you want to make a cash donation or to organize a benefit.
* GET INVOLVED: We have committees that are doing active outreach and mobilization, as well as preparing art and other materials. Just e-mail or phone to lend your support.
* LEARN MORE: Invite us to make a presentation about the Status for All campaign to your group or organization, to learn more about our demands and the Solidarity City campaign.
—–
Organized by Solidarity Across Borders, No One Is Illegal-Montreal, Dignidad Migrante, the Immigrant Workers Center, JOC-Montreal, and Mexicans United for Regularization. (Dignidad Migrante & Solidarity Across Borders are working groups of QPIRG Concordia.)
TO STAY IN TOUCH:
solidaritesansfrontieres@gmail.com
Tel: 438-933-7654
www.solidarityacrossborders.org

Migrant Voices: Justice for Noé Arteaga

immigrantworkerscentre — Fri, 11 May 2012 22:50:08 +0000

On May 11 2012, Noé Arteaga faces labour arbitration with his former employer, Les Serres du St-Laurent Inc, the company that produces SAVOURA tomatoes.

Noé came to Canada as a temporary foreign worker, but he was fired and deported to Guatemala after he helped organize a work-stoppage to get medical attention for a fellow worker. He is now seeking refugee status in Canada and is demanding justice from his former employer.

In this interview, Noé tells his story.

This is part of the Migrant Voices series, produced by the Immigrant Workers Centre of Montreal.

******

Other recent coverage of Noé’s case:

CKUT’s News Collective reports from downtown Montreal at the demo of support for Noé Arteaga. Broadcast on Off The Hour, May 11 2012.

Le Devoir, A9, May 12-13 2012

Media Advisory: Rally in support of migrant farm worker

immigrantworkerscentre — Thu, 10 May 2012 22:13:05 +0000

Friday May 11, 8:00 am
Holiday Inn, 99 Viger Avenue West (Metro Place d’Armes), Montreal

A rally in support of Noé Arteaga and temporary migrant farm workers seeking justice and dignity in Quebec.

Les Serres du St-Laurent Inc, a Quebec company which produces Savoura tomatoes, summarily fired and deported Arteaga Santos to Guatemala after he and other workers participated in a work stoppage to draw attention to the plight of a fellow worker, who was not receiving the medical treatment he needed.

In solidarity with all migrant farm workers, a rally will be held on Friday May 11th to demand that this worker be re-instated at work and that his other demands for basic justice – such as overtime pay, the cost of the plane ticket to Guatemala, and an apology – be met by Savoura. We also demand that he be given status and we call for the full regularization of all non-status people.

Statement by Arteaga: www.cmaq.net/fr/node/37655

Background

Noé Arteaga Santos, a former temporary migrant worker, has brought a complaint before Québec’s Commission des relations du travail against Les Serres du St-Laurent Inc, a Quebec company which produces Savoura tomatoes. The company summarily fired and deported Arteaga Santos to Guatemala after he and other workers participated in a work stoppage to draw attention to the plight of a fellow worker, who was not receiving the medical treatment he needed. After returning to Canada, he launched the complaint to protest this and other unjust treatment by Savoura. The complaint has gone to arbitration, and the next arbitration hearing will take place on Friday, May 11th.

Under Canada’s Temporary Foreign Workers Programme (TFWP), Quebec agri-businesses increasingly rely on cheap “disposable workers” from Guatemala, Mexico and other countries in Central America and the Caribbean. More than 4000 temporary Guatemalan farm workers are employed in Canada, mostly in Québec.

Canada, in fact, relies on foreign workers to satisfy different industry and service demands for short-term cheap labour in sectors like seasonal agriculture, live-in care-givers, oil sands construction, and food-processing. But reforms that were brought in last December prevent temporary workers from getting status in Canada by restricting them to working four years in Canada and then barring them from returning to the country for six years. While workers are barred after four years, employers are free to continue to bring workers from different source countries. This entrenches a permanent workforce that is expendable and powerless in exercising workers’ rights – an exploitable underclass of vulnerable workers who live without status and who are deprived of the most basic protections.

In this context, those who dare to speak out against violations or insist on their contract rights, like Arteaga, are quickly and brutally dealt with. It is crucial that others in Quebec, who benefit from the fruit of their labour, stand up in solidarity.

The 2011 reforms are part of a larger shift in Canada’s immigration policy towards creating a disposable migrant workforce with few rights. Since 2008, the number of workers admitted through the temporary foreign worker program exceeded the number of those admitted with permanent residency. Refugee quotas for 2010 were slashed by 60%, and deportations have doubled in the last decade. The number of permanent residents is decreasing each year. Funding for family reunification programs has been cut, and there is restricted access to citizenship through skilled worker programs for people who respond to a designated 38 occupations. The newly introduced Bill C-31 proposes further reforms that will make it more difficult for refugees to get to Canada and will punish some of those who do make it with mandatory detention and more barriers to status.

-30-

For more information:

514 342 2111

Source:

Ad Hoc Committee to support Noé Arteaga

May 1st: The Immigrant Workers Centre will Join two demonstrations

immigrantworkerscentre — Tue, 01 May 2012 00:01:37 +0000

*This May Day we are inviting immigrant and migrant workers and our allies to join us in an im/migrant worker contingent.

***The Immigrant Workers Centre will be joining two demonstrations for May Day:

1 – Anti-capitalist May Day

assembly at 4:15pm

Corner St-Antoine and Gosford

metro Champ-de-Mars

2 – Union march for May Day

assembly time 6pm

Corner Louis Hebert and Beaubien

metro D’Iberville

Gathering at 4:30pm at Champ-de-Mars
corner Saint-Antoine & Gosford
Métro Champ-de-Mars

- DISTRIBUTE WIDELY -

Join us for the ANTI-CAPITALIST MAYDAY DEMONSTRATION, MAY 1, 2012, IN MONTRÉAL
(See below for more calls issued by our allies!)

This is a call to all workers, unemployed, and precariously employed.
This is a call to the poor, the outcasts, the marginalized and the oppressed.
This is a call to the students who are struggling.
To women, and radical feminists, who have always struggled on the side of the disenfranchised. This is a call to those who are fed up, and who cannot take any more of this shit. To the anti-capitalists, the anarchists, the communists, the rebels, the insurgents, and revolutionaries. This is a call for the expression of a justifiable rage!

THIS IS A CALL FOR A GENERAL STRIKE ON MAY 1!
We call for a general strike for May 1, and we call for an unlimited general strike, because we do not want to be the oil that drives the gears of capitalism!
We will be the iron bar that will derail it! We call for the general strike to put an end to capitalism, because without us, the capitalists are nothing!

Together, we are everything, we can do anything!!

Join CLAC-Montreal (Convergence of Anti-Capitalist Struggles) on MAY 1st!
* We are inviting you to bring your banners, flags and placards, megaphones and noisemakers. And come masked! We also suggest that you form affinity groups!

* We are also inviting groups to support this call for an anti-capitalist May 1 demonstration, to put together your own block for the demonstration, to circulate this call-out in your networks, and to help with mobilization.*

If you are interested, contact us at: info @ clac-montreal.net

Join Us!
For a MAY 1 that is clearly anti-capitalist, and in the spirit of the pioneers of working-class emancipation, this is a call to retake the streets, to break the established order, and to occupy EVERYTHING!

To read CLAC’s newspaper, MayDay Special Issue:
http://www.clac-montreal.net/coup_pour_coup

For more information visit:
http://clac-montreal.net
info @ clac-montréal.net
https://www.facebook.com/events/324635217571613/

The following groups have endorsed this call:
Comité des sans-emploi Montréal-Centre (CSE)
Dignidad Migrante
Filipino workers support group
Immigrant Workers Centre (CTTI-IWC)
La Mitrailleuse
No One is Illegal – Montréal
People’s Commission Network (PCN)
PINAY
Projet accompagnement solidarité Colombie (PASC)
Queer-McGill Political Action Working Group
RASH-Montréal
Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP)
Solidarity Across Borders (SSAB)
Les Sorcières