Ontario court opens door to unionizing farm workers
November 17, 2008 - 11:18pm
Great news - another spinoff from last year's Supreme Court decision ruling that collective bargaining was a Charter right:
From a UFCW news release:
The Ontario Court of Appeal has told the Ontario government to drop its ban on farm unions because it violates the Charter rights of Ontario's more than 100,000 agriculture workers.
In a written decision delivered Monday, the court ruled that Ontario's Agricultural Employees Protection Act (AEPA), which currently denies Ontario farm workers the right to unionize, is a violation of Freedom of Association rights guaranteed under the Charter. The court has given the McGuinty Ontario government 12 months to bring farm workers under the Ontario Labour Relations Act, or draft new legislation respecting the rights of farm workers to unionize.
McGuinty who? Oh that guy. I think I saw him in a Hollywood remake of PSYCHO!!!
About 70 Rol-Land workers were abruptly repatriated last week. News conference tomorrow.
Most of the more than 70 workers abruptly fired last week at the Rol-Land Farms Ltd. operation near Campbellville, where they lived and worked, have been flown home by the company to Mexico, the Caribbean and Central America.
But so far eight have appealed for help, notably food, shelter and legal advice, from Toronto-based community group Justicia for Migrant Workers, and Parkdale Community Legal Services, Justicia spokesperson Chris Ramsaroop said yesterday.
"We're trying to look after the basic needs of the workers," Ramsaroop said.
Also assisting is the United Food and Commercial Workers union, which for years sought to organize farm workers it sees as exploited and working under harsh conditions.
Union representative Stan Raper said a news conference is slated for tomorrow morning at the Sheraton Centre in Toronto, where he and Ramsaroop expect at least eight workers to address their firing and working conditions.
It's unclear how many are still in Canada because some may be in hiding, Ramsaroop said.
http://news.guelphmercury.com/article/414262
The government plans to appeal, it seems:
The Ontario government will seek leave to appeal a provincial court's overruling of a law that blocks farm workers from collective bargaining.
A spokesperson for Agriculture Minister Leona Dombrowsky confirmed Wednesday that the province will ask the Supreme Court of Canada to hear its appeal of a Nov. 17 decision by the Ontario Court of Appeal that overturned the Agricultural Employees Protection Act (AEPA).
But the minister's spokesperson declined any further comment on the case and would not discuss any possible legal grounds on which the province would base an appeal.
But the United Food and Commercial Workers union (UFCW Canada), which challenged the 2003 law in court on behalf of three workers at a Windsor-area mushroom farm, had plenty to say about the province's plan to appeal, calling it "a page right out of the Mike Harris playbook."
UFCW Canada's national president, Wayne Hanley, blasted the current Liberal government's decision as "cynical politics, played out on the backs of these workers to protect the privileges and special interests of the agriculture lobby."
Hanley, in a release Wednesday, said Premier Dalton McGuinty "is acting like it is 1995 all over again, when one of the first things Mike Harris did as premier was to strip farm workers of their rights to unionize."
From the Manitoba Co-operator.