Bonduelle seeking on-site migrant worker housing

Chris Jackman
Staff Writer

The housing arrangements of Tecumseh migrant workers remain uncertain following a town hall meeting this month.

Tecumseh’s Bonduelle plant is requesting permission from Tecumseh Town Countil to house approximately 45 seasonal migrant workers on-site. At a public meeting to discuss the decision on Tuesday, Jan 13 before council’s usual meeting more than 50 people attended and shared their opinions.

“Whenever there’s re-zoning to be had, the public has a right to know what’s happening and provide their feedback,” said Ward 1 Councillor Andrew Dowie.

Rob Anderson, vice president of operations at Bonduelle, said a similar plan was originally proposed to the council last summer but was put on hold after the plant was damaged by a fire in July. He said Bonduelle is looking to convert the plant’s office building on Lacasse Boulevard into housing for the seasonal workers who migrate to Tecumseh from Jamaica every year from June to early December.

“Right now, what (Bonduelle is) proposing does not comply with our zoning law,” said Dowie. “They’re asking for the ability to add residential uses to industrial, which do not exist anywhere else in town and they’re currently not legal.”

The zoning law was not the only issue discussed at the meeting. Dowie said several attendees asked why Bonduelle wasn’t hiring from the local community.

Anderson said that while the majority of the Tecumseh plant staff is local, they still needed to employ migrant workers for part of the year.
“We don’t have the seasonal people we need,” said Anderson.

Chris Ramsaroop from Justice for Migrant Workers was also in attendance, and said housing the workers on-site would segregate them from the community.

“They should be living amongst us,” he said. “The employers should be providing rental properties and rental units at no cost to the workers in the community itself.”

Ramsaroop also raised concerns about the health and safety of the workers if they are housed at the plant and said the workers would be “confined to an employer, industrial setting.”

“Employers cannot be dictating the total control of workers in our society. Migrant workers are tied to their employer. They can be sent back at the whim of the employer.”

Anderson called the attendees’ reaction to the plan at the meeting “disappointing.” He works at the plant in Strathroy, Ont., where he said Bonduelle also employs seasonal migrant workers.

“We do not treat these workers any differently than our regular workers. They become members of the community,” said Anderson.

As for the health and safety concerns raised at the meeting, Anderson said the housing facilities would be inspected by health inspectors as well as the Jamaican liaison office.

Dowie said council is planning another public meeting within the next month before they vote on the issue, and they plan to speak to officials from other communities where similar situations have occurred.

“So there’s a lot more information that I need as a councillor in order to make a decision,” said Dowie. “I’m not prepared to make a decision on this until that information is available, and the various questions that I have, and many of the residents’ questions too, can be answered.”