‘We are not taking jobs from Canadians’: Temporary foreign worker on her life in N.B. | Globalnews.ca

A woman from Jamaica is speaking out on the harsh working conditions she says she’s faced as a temporary foreign worker in New Brunswick.

Stacey Plummer is calling on the federal government to grant permanent residency to workers like her, as a way to reduce the leverage employers have over them.

Plummer, who spoke at a news conference Wednesday hosted by the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, began working in seafood plants in southeastern New Brunswick in 2013.

She detailed discrimination, harassment and poor living conditions with her first employer.

“There were 12 of us workers in the house and we didn’t have enough appliances. I had to wake up 3 a.m. in the morning to prepare a meal for that night after work. I had to wait sometimes until 11 at night to prepare dinner, and even when I bought groceries I had nowhere to store them,” she said.

She left to work with a new employer, but said things weren’t much better there. Instead, she alleged verbal abuse and intense pressure to work faster.

“I was constantly getting yelled at for everything, even if the machine broke down, I was blamed for it,” she said.

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She also alleged she wasn’t given enough working hours, which resulted in her running out of money for her bills.

“This situation was causing me stress and anxiety, and my baby got sick because I wasn’t eating. (I only ate) once a day and I was breastfeeding her,” she said.

“Being a single mom without any income, it’s hard, primarily when relying on one employer to feed your family. I could not sleep during that time thinking about the next meal.”

She said she and other temporary foreign workers “have to endure all this abuse because the government is denying us the right to permanent residency.”

‘Breeding ground’ for modern slavery

In August, a United Nations report described Canada’s temporary foreign worker program as a “breeding ground” for modern slavery because it creates a power imbalance preventing employees from exercising their rights.

Later that month, the prime minister announced the federal government was moving to restrict the number of low-wage temporary foreign workers in Canada — in certain sectors.

“We need Canadian businesses to invest in training and technology and not increasing their reliance on low-cost foreign labour,” Trudeau said at the time.

“It’s not fair to Canadians struggling to find a good job, and it’s not fair to those temporary foreign workers, some of whom are being mistreated and exploited.”

The changes, which took effect Sept. 26, largely do not affect New Brunswick, however. Certain sectors — including agriculture, food processing and fish processing — are exempt from the restrictions.

Most of New Brunswick’s temporary foreign workers are employed in the agriculture and seafood industries.

While she’s not currently affected by the change in rules, Plummer said the treatment of temporary foreign workers is only making things worse for them.

“We came here to contribute to society. We are not taking jobs from Canadians. We are not responsible for the housing crisis. We are the solution to this problem. We are already being abused by employers and this is the last thing we need — for our politicians to blame us for their failures,” she said.

Karen Cocq, the campaigns co-ordinator with Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, said the option of permanent residency is vital for workers — in order to prevent abuse.

“Their ability to speak out against exploitation and their right to live with their families are all conditional on their immigration status without permanent resident status,” Cocq said.

“Migrants are left vulnerable to abuse, exploitation and in some cases, even death.”

— with a file from Global News’ Saba Aziz

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