The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled against giving Ontario farm workers the right to unionize.
In an eight to one ruling, Supreme Court justices said Ontario’s 80,000 agricultural workers are entitled to “good faith” negotiations but not the right to form unions.
“The Ontario legislature is not required to provide a particular form of collective bargaining rights to agricultural workers in order to secure the effective exercise of their associational rights,” the majority wrote in a 136 page ruling.
The latest ruling is part of a long battle between farm workers, courts and the Ontario government.
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Ontario farm workers were given the right to unionize in 1994, but the province repealed the law a year later.
In 2001, the Supreme Court ruled that Ontario legislation banning farm workers from organizing violated freedom of association rights and instructed the Ontario government to change its labour laws.
The Ontario government then created the Agriculture Employees Protection Act, which allowed Ontario farm workers to form associations but not unions.
Farm workers, the United Food and Commercial Workers union and its director launched the Supreme Court challenge in 2009 to gain the ability to unionize.
“This is a sad and shocking day for some of the most vulnerable and exploited workers in Ontario,” UFCW national president Wayne Hanley said in a release.
“We are disappointed, but we are not deterred,” he said.
“We remain solidly committed to fight for Ontario agriculture workers until they have the same rights and protection like other Ontario workers.”
In a dissenting argument, justice Rosalie Abella said farm workers in all other provinces except Alberta have the same collective bargaining rights as other employees, but there is no evidence this has harmed farming’s economic viability in those provinces.
