More battles likely over agricultural workers

NUPGE supporting Charter challenge by UFCW Canada

Toronto (25 Jan. 2006) - The campaign to allow Ontario farm workers to form unions is likely heading back to the Ontario Court of Appeal after a ruling handed down by Ontario Superior Court Justice James Farley.

In an 18-page ruling Judge Farley ruled that an Ontario Act, the Agricultural Employees Protection Act (AEPA) which allows farm workers to only form employee associations, but prohibits them from forming unions, is not necessarily a contravention of Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The case revolves around a Charter challenge of the AEPA filed in 2003 by three Ontario factory farm workers and the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW Canada). The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) supported UFCW Canada in its legal fight.

The AEPA was introduced by the Harris-Eves government in June 2003 as a result of a previously successful UFCW Charter challenge of Ontario law. In December 2001, the Supreme Court of Canada – in a precedent-setting decision known as Dunmore v. Ontario (Attorney General), [2001] 3 S.C.R. 1016 – ruled in favour of UFCW Canada’s claim that the Ontario Conservative government of Mike Harris violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms by excluding agricultural workers from the Ontario Labour Relations Act (OLRA). The Supreme Court told Ontario to take action and change its labour laws to comply with The Charter.

The result was the AEPA which allows Ontario farm workers to form associations, but not unions, and continues to deny agricultural workers the right to collectively bargain as available under the OLRA. Unfortunately workers under the AEPA can take their concerns to their employer but the employer is not obliged to respond at all. Yet in his ruling Judge Farley writes “it would appear to me that the AEPA provides adequate, [adequate in the sense of meeting minimum standards], protection…”

“With all due respect we are disappointed with the decision and are reviewing an application to the Ontario Court of Appeal," says Michael Fraser, National Director of the UFCW Canada. "The AEPA is not the remedy the Supreme Court of Canada called for, and as they ruled in 2001, we believe they will rule again if this matter eventually arrives at their court.”

Judge Farley’s decision on the AEPA comes only days after another Ontario Superior Court decision by Justice T. Ducharme legitimized the UFCW Canada union as a representative of thousands of migrant agricultural workers who come to Canada each season.

“One Ontario court recognizes agricultural workers need a collective voice,” notes Fraser, “while another court rules farm workers don’t necessarily require the right to collective bargaining. The reality is that under the AEPA, the only guarantee that agricultural workers have is that they will shamefully continue to be exploited and treated like second-class citizens.” NUPGE