There’s little chance that Alberta’s 60,000 farm workers will rush to join a union, says Fred Bayer, registrar with the Saskatchewan Labour Relations Board.
“It is fair to say that is a silly assumption that everybody is going to unionize. The workers must want to be represented by a union; the unions just don’t go in there and unionize,” said Bayer.
“Very few workers on farm operations sit back and say, ‘I want a union to represent me.’ ”
Alberta’s controversial Bill 6 will remove the exemption that prohibits Alberta farm workers from forming a union. The exclusion from the Labour Relations Code is considered to interfere with the Canadian Charter’s right to associate.
Read Also
Agriculture ministers agree to AgriStability changes
federal government proposed several months ago to increase the compensation rate from 80 to 90 per cent and double the maximum payment from $3 million to $6 million
Many farmers at Bill 6 rallies and consultation meetings suggested the bill was disguised to bring unions to farms.
In Saskatchewan, farm workers have had the right to unionize since the Trade Union Act was first acclaimed in 1945, but few farm workers have unionized over the years, said Hugh Wagner, general secretary for the Grain and General Services Union.
The GSU represents workers at Wild West Steelhead, a fish farm at Lucky Lake, Sask., and Hillcrest Farms, a turkey hatchery at Bruno, Sask., as well as millers, elevator agents and employees of The Western Producer.
Despite the ability to unionize, Wagner believes only a handful of farm workers in Saskatchewan are unionized.
“I suspect the number is pretty low. You don’t find large concentrations of workers in a particular farm.”
Eighteen employees of Bear Hills Pork Producers Ltd. near Perdue, Sask., joined the GSU in 1999. It was the first barn in the industry to be organized.
However, it and several other barns, both unionized and non-unionized, went into receivership when the hog industry collapsed during the mid 2000s.
Wagner said no union is going to approach family farms to unionize. A farm needs at least 10 workers before it becomes viable to unionize.
Bayer said only a handful of farm operations in Saskatchewan have unionized since the 1960s.
Workers at Barrich Farms, a potato farm near Outlook, Sask., unionized in 2008 and decertified two years later.
Starline Farm, operating as Star Egg, an egg processor, certified in 1977, and its workers are still members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.
As well, the National Farmers Union’s administrative staff unionized in 1972.
Bayer said union certifications are more a reflection of economic times than changing governments.
“When provinces or the economy prospers, unionization rates aren’t as high. When the economy goes down the toilet and people start losing their jobs and employers aren’t paying wages and going bankrupt, workers get concerned,” Bayer said.
“It’s a trend that holds in Canada and the U.S.… Bad employers make great unions.”
mary.macarthur@producer.com
