In several cities in Quebec, demonstrators gathered to demand the regularization of undocumented immigrants and the abolition of an administrative procedure which makes employees precarious. Currently, many foreign workers are tied to a single employer, opening the door to abuse by some bosses and preventing employees from changing companies. Workers at a slaughterhouse about to close are currently experiencing this.
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With our correspondent in Quebec, Pascale Guéricolas
“ Good enough to work! good enough to stay “, shouted the demonstrators: representatives of unions and immigrant aid organizations denounce a two-tier labor law in the cold rain. Many employees from abroad depend on a single boss to be able to stay in Canada. If their business closes, as is the case with this slaughterhouse located in southern Quebec, they cannot find another employer.
Coming from Madagascar, this worker refuses to move from the region where he has lived for three years: “ We had settled in, we were comfortable in the community. And then they’re going to uproot us from there again, and put us in another place. We’re going to start from scratch, it’s hard. »
The CSN union is calling for the abolition of the closed work permit which makes the immigration situation of foreign workers precarious. “ Let’s allow these hundreds of thousands of people to stay in Quebec, so that they integrate into Quebec society and become a workforce and then become citizens of Quebec.explains spokesperson François Proulx-Dupeyret. All people must have the same rights. »
The very restrictive work permit also encourages abuse by malicious bosses. Foreign employees do not dare to denounce their employers under penalty of having to return to their country of origin.