Statement | Migrante Manitoba | December 24, 2025
Migrante Manitoba celebrates the gains of its campaign to seek justice for 17 Filipino mechanics in Winnipeg and Regina who were terminated by 4Tracks Ltd., a Manitoba-based trucking company with a history of labour violations.
On December 18, Migrante Manitoba held a press conference where the workers publicly exposed the workplace abuses they experienced at 4Tracks Ltd. In response to mounting pressure from this collective action, the company reversed the terminations and requested the workers return.
However, reversing the terminations does not eliminate the need for accountability regarding the workers’ reported experiences in the workplace and their living situations since arrival in Canada.
The Conditions Workers Faced
Workers reported working full shifts in cold winter conditions without proper winter coats, boots, or gloves. They handled heavy equipment and welding tools without adequate safety training or proper Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), including respiratory masks.
The workers were promised furnished accommodation. Instead, three workers were crammed into one bedroom with mattresses on the floor. One worker was forced to sleep on cardboard. The employer-provided housing lacked furniture and cooking equipment as promised.
The workers also reported verbal abuse and intimidation—being called “company-owned” and “minions” and told to “go back to the Philippines.” After three weeks, 4Tracks terminated all 17 mechanics, claiming they “failed minimum safety competency standards.” The company reversed this position only after organized community pressure.
During the campaign, the immigration recruitment agency working with 4Tracks engaged in intimidation tactics to discourage the workers from continuing their fight. This only strengthened their resolve.
Moving Forward with Demands
Since the reversal of the termination, the workers have united to return to the company with concrete demands: proper PPE, improved housing conditions, and an end to workplace intimidation and discrimination. Migrante Manitoba fully supports the workers’ decision to assert these demands and hold the company accountable.
Our collective efforts to win back their jobs and support the workers in addressing workplace concerns is a victory. Throughout the campaign, the workers have empowered themselves to stand up for their rights and ensure their basic needs are met. We thank the community for donations, food, clothing and Broadway Disciples United Church for providing shelter in their time of need.
The Struggle Continues
Migrante Manitoba calls for the community to continue to protect all migrant workers facing vulnerable situations under exploitative systems that commodify workers as cheap, disposable labour—both in Canada through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, and in the Philippines through the Labour Export Program.
For Filipino migrant workers, it is the absence of jobs with liveable wages, basic social services, and national industry that forces nearly 8,000 Filipinos to leave their homeland each day, only to face exploitation abroad. The rampant corruption and misuse of government funds by the Marcos Jr. regime must also be exposed as a root cause of forced migration.
We call on all Filipinos and allies to hold both the Canadian and Philippine governments accountable for the widespread exploitation of Filipino migrants.
SERBISYO, HINDI NEGOSYO!
PROTEKSYON, HINDI KOLEKSYON!
DEFEND MIGRANTS NOW!
JUSTICE FOR THE MIGRANT WORKER MECHANICS!