“Food Chain Labour”: CLIFF and Justice for Migrant Workers joint film screening depicts worker struggles
From November 5 to November 8, an audience passionate about great movies and workers’ rights had the chance to watch six curated short films based on the theme “food chain labour”. These selections were made possible due to a collaboration between Justice for Migrant Workers and the Canadian Labour International Film Festival (CLIFF).
Among the selected films, three were documentaries that show the struggles, challenges, and organizing victories of workers in various sectors. Working for Freedom documents the experiences of a woman in prison labour at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre, A Tarea is set in the Galician estuaries in Spain where a group of shellfish gatherers are fighting to stop poachers from overfishing, and COVID Sourdough is the story of union organizers at a San Francisco bakery who are subjected to a brutal anti-union employer just weeks before the pandemic.
The other three films, Homegrown, NOLA, and Your Own Boss are fictionalized accounts of the various injustices in different stages of food production and distribution from the workers’ perspective. Homegrown is a dark drama about a Bajan fruit picker in the UK; the film title itself is a clever nod to the paradox of “homegrown” produce and the inhumane working conditions of migrant farm workers. Perhaps the most dystopian yet grounded narrative was that of Your Own Boss, which follows a food delivery worker trying to juggle the duties of fatherhood and a very demanding, all-pervasive algorithm. Finally, those who consider hit television series The Bear a stressful watch might want to try NOLA, in which a Black woman working in an all-male, all-white kitchen as a sous chef struggles with her mental health in a highly demanding, fast-paced environment.
On the final day of the screening, Chris Ramsaroop and Taneeta Doma from Justice for Migrant Workers led a virtual debrief and discussion on the films. Based in Toronto with chapters all over Canada, Justice for Migrant Workers is an all-volunteer collective that is leading the charge against worker exploitation and pushing for “status for all”, especially for migrant farm workers. During the debrief, Ramsaroop pointed out that the screening took place as two disasters are unfolding: Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica as well as the closing of a mushroom plant in Wellington, Ontario.
Not only did Hurricane Melissa impact Jamaica, Cuba, Dominican Republic and Haiti, it also doubly affected the lives of migrant workers here in Canada who may be returning to decimated homes and family livelihoods. Employment insurance has long been unavailable to migrant workers, explains Ramsaroop, hence they are being denied essential money. Justice for Migrant Workers has written to the federal government about this issue and will be discussing next steps between January 21 and 24.
The closing of Highline Mushrooms, one of the biggest mushroom conglomerates in Ontario, will result in three hundred workers losing their jobs. Justice for Migrant Workers has been organizing solidarity actions and hearing from workers about their concerns and fears. Most of the affected workers are employed on contract basis and are currently only working half their contract. Taneeta Doma explained that some of these workers’ families are victims of Hurricane Melissa as well, hence they are affected on both fronts.
During the discussion, audience members pointed out that both NOLA and Your Own Boss focus on individualized depictions of what workers go through in the restaurant and food delivery sectors. In comparison, A Tarea is a women workers’ collective; the shellfish collectors not only spoke about their struggles with poachers, but also their passion for the work despite inhospitable working conditions such as hand aches from cold temperatures and long-term effects on their bones. Occupational health and safety issues are a reality for migrant farm workers as well, as depicted in Homegrown.
Intersectionality was a well-discussed theme of the films as they depicted not just their harassment as workers, but the harassment’s racist and sexist origins rooted in history as well. The audience noticed that white men occupied the managerial and supervisory positions in NOLA and Homegrown; the employers in COVID Sourdough had strong anti-Black as well as anti-Palestine motivations, further displaying how worker subordination enforces the social hierarchies of race, gender, and class. On the topic of surveillance of food delivery workers as seen on Be Your Own Boss, Taneeta Doma pointed out that farm workers are heavily surveilled and kept apart, heightening the sense of individuality and making it easy for employers to pit workers against each other by nationality, race, and gender.
For film buffs who missed the screening of these six brilliant films, CLIFF has announced the screening of They Called It The Butcher Shop: The Fleck Strike in Images. This screening is taking place at Schulich Hall Theatre at Huron University College on Thursday, November 13 at 7pm. The screening will be followed by a Q&A session with producer Lauren Stoyles. The event runs till 10pm and free parking is available at Huron University College’s south lot (back entrance).
For those not able to attend in person, three film screenings are available through the University of Western Ontario Faculty Association (UWOFA) on three consecutive Thursdays: November 13, 20 and 27. The following packages are available for viewing at home, for free:
Package A (126 minutes) – Thursday Nov 13, 7pm ET
- Victory Train, 27:00 min (Sweden)
- They Called It The Butcher Shop: The Fleck Strike In Images, 14:40 min (Canada)
- Motown South: Organized Labor in the Battery Belt, 20:00 min (United States)
- NOLA, 9:34 min (Canada)
- Cables, 14:00 min (Spain)
- Union and University, 15:59 (Canada)
- Dissonance, 25:00 min (Spain)
Package B (84 minutes) – Thursday Nov 20, 7pm ET
- A tarea, 28:00 min (Spain)
- Working for Freedom, 10:50 min (Canada)
- Ghost Workers, 26:00 min (Netherlands)
- Limerent Pittsburgh, 2:48 min (United States)
- COVID Sourdough, 16:00 min (United States)
Package C (57 minutes) – Thursday Nov 27, 7pm ET
- Your Own Boss, 18:00 min (Spain)
- Homegrown, 14:45 min (United Kingdom)
- Imade, 21:00 min (Spain)
- Shadow Work, 2:53 min (Canada)
Since 2009, the Canadian Labour International Film Festival (CLIFF), in collaboration with different community partners, has made critical films and documentaries on labour issues available to the public. Find a list of upcoming screenings on their website, as well as information to host a screening at your own workplace, union, or community organization for next year.
