Filipino migrant workers in Canada call for livable wage, job security

Toronto, Canada — Red-tagging, exploitation, unsafe work, job insecurity – these are the struggles the working class faces whether at home in the Philippines or in Canada, where many are staking their dreams of a better life.

In a recent talk dubbed “Strengthening Labor Solidarity Amidst Global Repression”, Perry Sorio of Migrante Canada shared the challenges Filipino migrant workers continue to face abroad. 

The talk was part of a fundraiser supporting labor leaders and progressives set to join an upcoming labor tour to the Philippines to learn from the struggles of the Filipino working class.

“The same struggle continues here. Precarious jobs, erosion of public services, repression when workers resist,” she said. 

Sorio emphasized that migrants and racialized workers are among those who are exploited, especially in care work, warehousing, farms and factories, with little security and constant fear of deportation.

Without a livable wage in the Philippines, many Filipinos resorted to working abroad to provide for their families. 

According to Santiago Dasmariñas Jr. of the Confederation for Unity, Recognition and Advancement of Government Employees (Courage), Filipinos who are forced to migrate sacrifice to be away from home just to give their families a better life.  

“The Filipinos I’ve talked to here in Canada shared nothing but the same experiences and struggles with workers in the Philippines. They said that if they only had a livable wage in the Philippines, they wouldn’t come to Canada,” Dasmariñas told Bulatlat.

Dasmariñas is on a labor tour across Canada with the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE). He said Filipinos shared the sadness they feel from being away from home and family.

While they want to come back home they have two concerns: Will they find a job, and if they do, will they make enough?

The ‘Canadian dream’

Nice people, maple trees, tall buildings, universal healthcare these are what people imagine when they think about Canada. However, for Filipino migrant workers who are exploited in the guise of a better life, the country is not as sweet and kind as it seems.

“When people imagine Toronto, they see the CN Tower, the waterfront, world-class hotels — diversity and opportunity,” said Rafunzel Korngut, a union and community organizer with KAPWA Hospitality Alliance.

“You see the city’s diversity and opportunity. While that is true, what they don’t see is the foundation upon which this glittering image is built. The workers,” said Korngut, adding that thousands of hospitality workers – the vast majority of whom are racialized women and immigrants –  are the ones who maintain the cleanliness of the rooms, make the beds to ensure the guests’ comfort. 

Korngut is a former room attendant at Fairmont Royal York in Toronto. She said that some hotel workers clean 20 rooms in an eight-hour shift.

“Ninety percent of hotel housekeepers are women. This is a back breaking, physically demanding job, performed overwhelmingly by women,” she said, adding most of them are primary bread winners who send their money home.

The working class’ struggles are inseparable 

According to Sorio, solidarity is the recognition that an injury to one is an injury to all of us. 

“Together we must resist exploitation, demand dignity, and fight for a world where migrants are celebrated as part of the global working class,” Sorio said. 

“We must personally resist the attacks on public services, pensions, and labor rights. We must link the workers’ movement with peasants, women, migrants, and other militant sectors. We must mobilize solidarity with the concrete struggles from the United States to Palestine, to the Philippines. Defend every gain of the workers’ movement and resist repression of unions worldwide,” Sorio added.

According to the labor leader, the repression faced by the union in Manila is the same used to silence pro-Palestinian workers in Toronto, like in the case of paramedic and CUPE Ontario member Katherine Grzejszczak, who was fired over a social media post condemning Israel for the genocide in Palestine.

Sorio said that their struggles are inseparable, emphasizing that the neoliberal assault that oppresses Filipino workers is part of the same system that creates precarity and division in Canada.

Turning fear into collective strength

With these working conditions, Korngut believes that workers need to unite and fight together to assert their right to just and humane working conditions. 

“In an industry where precarious jobs, wage theft, unsafe conditions can be commonplace, where workers — especially migrants, women — face intimidation, fear of reprisal, for speaking up, it is not enough to just be part of a union. We must be part of a community. We only win the fight if we are part of a community,” she said. 

She stressed the importance of solidarity. “We turn fear into collective strength. Our fight for justice in the hotels of Toronto is connected to [the] fight for justice everywhere.”

Korngut emphasized that it is KAPWA’s mission to educate and empower hospitality workers to ensure that every single one, regardless of immigration status or language, knows their rights: The right to a safe workplace, free from harassment and injury, the right to fair wages, and to pay for every hour of work. (AMU, JDS)

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