TORONTO, July 23, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — On Thursday July 24, 2025, Justicia for Migrant Workers (J4MW), an advocacy group of migrant workers and community activists will target the Ontario Ministry of Labour (MOL) to highlight the extreme heat and other weather conditions that workers face across the province. The action will take place at 2:30pm on Thursday at the Ministry of Labour (400 University Avenue, in Toronto).
In a symbolic protest, members of J4MW will fry an egg outside the offices of the MOL to illustrate the impact of extreme temperatures on agricultural workers and all workers. The fried egg and a demand letter will be served to members of the MOL after the action. As migrant workers continue to suffer from heat stress, the MOL also continues to ignore migrant workers who will bear the consequences of the province’s refusal to implement protections against extreme weather conditions.
Taneeta Doma, a staff lawyer with the Migrant Farmworker Legal Clinic and an organizer with J4MW, says, “Every year, we see weather conditions worsen as a result of climate change, whether it is severe thunderstorms, poor air quality, or extreme heat. Why should workers have to ask this government for the basic protections they should already have?”
Concerns are also being raised by agricultural workers employed in greenhouses where temperatures exceed even extreme outdoor temperatures. Coupled with long working days, symptoms like nausea, dizziness, and feeling faint are not uncommon among workers in these conditions. If specific and comprehensive legal protections do not exist, workers will continue to be expected to work without water or additional breaks, both of which are discouraged by supervisors who prioritize productivity and crops themselves.
Chris Ramsaroop, an organizer with J4MW, is raising the alarm that immediate measures are needed to protect precarious communities from extreme weather events. “We should not be waiting for another tragedy to occur where a worker is sick or dies because of heat conditions,” Ramsaroop says.
For multiple years, advocates have brought awareness regarding the lack of protection from extreme weather events. In 2022, responding to an open letter from J4MW, the province had committed to enacting heat stress protections under the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA). The following year, Ontario reneged on its commitment, leaving workers to fend for themselves. Ontario continues to put the profit of employers ahead of the health of workers. In 2024, J4MW wrote a letter to the MOL where we highlighted the testimony of Jonathan who shared his experience with being told to “remove the bins of apples out of the fields because they were getting sunburn.” The worker asked themselves – “If the apples can get sunburn, what about us who are there working in bare heat with no shelter?”
J4MW poses this question to the Ministry and demands immediate protections for workers given the increasing extreme heat events such as those occurring in Toronto now, the severity of which will be evidenced in their action on Thursday. It’s time to put workers first.
For interviews and additional information, please contact:
Chris Ramsaroop (Justicia 4 Migrant Workers):
Tel: 647-834-4932 / E-mail: j4mw.on@gmail.com
Taneeta Doma (Staff Lawyer, Migrant Farmworker Legal Clinic):
Tel: 519-903-7376 / E-mail: j4mw.on@gmail.com
