Written for New Canadian Media by Jennifer Huang in Toronto
Monday, 30 November 2015
There is a good opportunity right now to
organize a left within Chinese immigrant workers, but leadership and more
resources from all parts of organized labour are needed to do this, writes
Jennifer Huang.Photo Credit: Vincent Desjardins via Flickr CC
I recently read an article entitled “The New
Chinese Working Class and the Canadian Left” by Justin Kong that reinvigorated
a passion of mine – organizing immigrant workers.
As Kong puts it, “the conditions for an immigrant left are
ripe in the Chinese community.”
Having spent the last four years working as an
organizer with the Toronto &
York Region Labour Council trying to organize Chinese union
workers, you can understand my excitement when I read Kong’s article.
Yes, you read correctly – I wasn’t organizing
Chinese workers into unions; rather I was organizing “the already
organized.”
I wasn’t organizing Chinese
workers into unions; rather I was organizing “the already organized.”
Much like Kong observed, the Chinese community
was – and is – very much unengaged with the Canadian left. Looking around, I
could see that there were in fact many Chinese Canadians who were union
members, but did not self-identify as such.
Building trade union
consciousness
At the Labour Council, we developed the
Chinese Workers’ Network where we went around asking local unions to identify
Chinese union members from within their ranks.
We invited these members to Chinese-language
events where we did education work about the importance of unions, explained
and de-mystified union structures and celebrated the many gains that the labour
movement has achieved for Canada (debunking the myth that Canada is a
benevolent country with good social programs that no one really had to struggle
for).
Last I checked, we had over 500 people
identified on our database as Chinese. We developed a committee who would
translate articles about workers’ struggles into Chinese, and put these up on
our website.
[L]istening to the stories about
their employer’s outrageous abuse and violation of human rights, I knew that
our organizing efforts were not enough.
Even with the limited resources we had to
dedicate towards this initiative, we’ve had tremendous success.
Perhaps the best example was when one group of
Chinese workers contacted us to help them organize a union. One hundred per
cent of the workers voted for a union, but listening to the stories about their
employer’s outrageous abuse and violation of human rights, I knew that our
organizing efforts were not enough.
Engaging new immigrant
workers
What we began at the Labour Council was only one
side of a two-pronged approach. We need to continue this mobilizing externally
into the community where workers are already organized – in their faith groups,
community associations, sites of recreation and leisure, etc.
While I was working as an adult literacy
instructor, some of my students found part-time work as community health
ambassadors.
These students were specifically recruited
because their first language was not English, so while they were trained in
English to deliver health-related topics, they were expected to organize
members in their own communities (using their own social networks) to deliver
these workshops in their mother tongues.
As I witnessed the effectiveness of this model
at the time, I wondered why unions couldn’t adopt a similar community approach
with many of the new immigrant workers?
If the Canadian labour movement
is to survive and actually grow, all unions should be dedicating resources to
develop a political left within immigrant communities.
These workshops would be advantageous not only
to the worker learning about his/her rights, but could also offer an array of
tips to unions about where organizing efforts should be focused.
If the Canadian labour movement is to survive
and actually grow, all unions should be dedicating resources to develop a
political left within immigrant communities – and towards the goal of
organizing workers into unions.
Central labour bodies in each region need to
take a hard look to see which non-English speaking communities are their
largest demographic, and recognize not all communities of colour are recent
immigrants – some have been in Canada for a long time.
Organizing Chinese
immigrant workers
There is a good opportunity right now to
organize a left within Chinese immigrant workers, but we need leadership and
more resources from all parts of organized labour to do this.
Workers in the Chinese diaspora, who are
underpaid and undervalued, often feel that they have no choice, but to accept
their working conditions; otherwise they face unemployment or self-employment.
They feel that they lack the language skills to find employment in the Canadian
mainstream, or seek help to remedy their situation.
With Jason Kenney at the helm,
the Conservatives have done a wonderful job of convincing Chinese Canadians
they are watching out for their best interests.
It is precisely because workers find
themselves in these situations of precariousness that the labour movement has
an opportunity to engage them. To not do so is to our detriment.
Our prolonged absence in any form of sustained
engagement with the Chinese immigrant working class has already begun to
bolster the ranks of the political right. With Jason Kenney at the helm, the
Conservatives have done a wonderful job of convincing Chinese Canadians they
are watching out for their best interests.
Kong puts it best: “If we look throughout
Canada’s history, we will see that incorporating immigrant workers has been
central to the power of organized labour and the Canadian left. However,
that this incorporation has often excluded immigrant workers who are not white
men has always been an overarching, strategic misstep.”
A labour movement that is inclusive needs to
create – and sustain – a welcoming space for all workers regardless of
language, race, religion or accent. It is my hope to continue the discussion of
how we might engage Chinese immigrant workers – but more broadly, all immigrant
workers.
A child-immigrant herself, Jennifer Huang
worked as an organizer at the Toronto & York Region Labour Council where
she spearheaded the Chinese Workers’ Network (CWN). Its success spurred
the creation of the other workers’ networks – Filipino, Tamil and Somali.
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