A Fight for Justice: The Compelling Story of Temporary Foreign Workers & Human Rights

A Fight For Justice by Joe Barrett is a well-researched and heavily detailed report of British Columbia to recruit cheaper labor from Costa Rica and other Central American countries to build an underground train tunnel. There was a bid from local labor, but they wanted to get cheaper labor for what is a strenuous and dangerous job. The union in the area learned about and began contacting the new hires from Central America. The unions in Costa Rica were ineffective, and joining was dangerous. There is a huge salary difference between skilled laborers working as tunnel diggers in Vancouver and those in Costa Rica.

There was a campaign to recruit workers from Costa Rica and other Central American countries to join the union. It had to be show more secretive; the company contacted for the build of the tunnel had spies. Not only were lower wages offered, but they were housed in decrepid motel, that was not really clean. Meals were promised that was a joke. The calories were insufficient for the long and grueling hours of labor. Their culture was ignored, and they were not used to eating greasy food.

The worker soon found out that the outside local workers were just doing clean up instead of the grueling strenous, and dangerous work and paid much more. That encouraged them to join the union and fight for better wages, lodging and meals. The fight was long and hard. Many friendships were made between the workers and the union people. There are photos of the workers, mostly small but the one that I love the most is a lead worker enjoying his first experience of snow in his life, sliding down a snow covered hillside on a day hike to Mount Seymour arranged by the union. You can see the look of pure joy on his face. The union made sure that the workers' medical needs were handled, like an emergency surgery for one worker and another worker's need for dental treatment. show less