The Ontario Progressive Conservative government has pushed a bill
through the provincial legislature giving farm workers the right to
form associations but not to bargain collectively as a union.
Even though the United Food and Commercial Workers’ union is vowing to
take the government to court over the bill because it denies union
rights, agriculture minister Helen Johns says she expects the
government to win.
And she suggested in a Nov. 19 interview from Toronto that Alberta, a
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fellow Conservative province and the only other jurisdiction that
forbids farm workers from joining a union, could follow the Ontario
example of how to protect farmers from a unionized workforce.
“I would suspect if this does hold up (to a court challenge), Alberta
will be looking at it because they, like Ontario, have been very
protective of their agriculture industry,” she said.
Last year, in a court challenge to Ontario’s ban on agricultural
unions, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the province was
violating the Charter of Rights guarantee of freedom of association. If
challenged, lawyers say Alberta’s ban on farm worker unions could also
be declared unconstitutional.
The court ordered Ontario to change the law, but did not say Ontario
had to grant union rights.
The Ontario government, over the protests of the UFCW and the National
Farmers Union, decided to allow farm workers to associate but not to
join unions.
Ontario’s agriculture lobby has argued that a unionized workforce could
hold family farmers ransom by raising costs and threatening to strike
at crucial times in the production and harvesting cycle.
Union officials have insisted their target is factory farms with scores
of workers, not family farms with a few employees.
Johns and the PC government sided with the farm lobby.
She called the bill, which was approved by the Ontario legislature Nov.
18, a “fine balance” that government lawyers say meets the Supreme
Court requirement to allow “association” while protecting farmers from
their fear of unions.
“It is important to our agricultural community and for the employees,”
Johns said. “They now have rights enshrined that they never had before.
It fell short of where the union wanted us to come in, that they have
full collective bargaining rights …. We have a paternalistic approach
to agriculture in the province and we want to make sure that we protect
both employees and the industry.”
UFCW leaders have dismissed the bill as allowing farm workers to join
social clubs. The union said it will take the province back to court.
“We certainly hope it will stand up and we have been assured that it
should,” Johns responded.
“I guess if it doesn’t, we’ll look at what the results of the next
Supreme Court ruling are and we’ll move forward.”
