CHAPTER 10: Full Circle

In 1993, with the pro-labour New Democratic Party back in power in B.C., the long fight for health and safety regulations finally bore fruit. New occupational health and safety legislation legally protects farmworkers against the spraying of pesticides, dictates that machinery must be operated in a safe manner and that an adequate supply of drinking water is always available.

The old Socred idea of a health and safety committee run by the growers was updated and launched as the Farm And Ranch Safety and Health Association (FARSHA), made up of equal representation from the growers and the farmworkers and chaired by a representative from the Workers� Compensation Board.

On the federal level, the government launched a Pesticide Registration Review to come up with proposals for revising the control of pesticide use in 1989. The panel, of which Sarwan Boal was a member, issued a report proposing more extensive testing of new pesticides, increased public access to information and better education for farmworkers and growers. But Boal, representing the CFU, submitted a dissenting report, saying the recommendations didn't go far enough.

"English may be my second language," Boal said, "but I know the difference between Must and Should, Will and May. Whenever the proposal protects the rights of pesticide manufacturers or agribusiness, the wording says Must and Will. Whenever the proposal safeguards farmworkers, the wording says Should or May."

In 1983, the CFU won a negligence suit against a farmer after worker Basta Grewal had his chest ripped open by a mushroom spawning machine activated by an unguarded toggle switch. Expert testimony at the trial stated the machine could have been safeguarded to prevent such accidents for as little as $15. At the time, the lack of health and safety regulations let the farmer put the machine back in operation after the accident. When the CFU objected, the Workers' Compensation Board said it had no jurisdiction to order the machine fixed. Now that provincial regulations are in place, the problem has become enforcement.

Two farmworkers died during the 1994 harvest after being dragged into potato harvesters. One of them, 60-year-old Harneck Singh Kainth, had been clearing weeds from a combine in Ladner when his arm was caught in the machine and severed. He suffered cardiac arrest and died. When the machine was examined after the accident, it was found to have numerous unguarded gear and chain drives, contrary to the new safety regulations.

The farmers often remove the guards in machines like potato harvesters to save cleaning time and speed up the machines, according to Charan Gill. "To save time and increase productivity, the growers risk farmworkers� lives. The problem won�t be solved until the Workers� Compensation Board�s inspection techniques become consistent. Most of the time they don�t even know where the harvesters are working."

The WCB looked into the circumstances leading to Kainth's death, and although its final report noted that the machinery should not have been running while Kainth cleared weeds from the belts, no one was blamed. The provincial government announced reforms of the Employment Standards Act in November 1994 that have finally extended coverage to agricultural workers. The government had originally planned to eliminate the piece-rate at the same time and include farmworkers under minimum-wage law that will raise the minimum wage for all workers to $7/hour in November 1995. But after talks with growers and farmworkers, the Ministry of Skills, Training and Labour decided to raise the piece rate along with the minimum wage and put the whole issue in for further review. The results of that study are expected by the end of 1995.

Farmers must now keep records of dealings with farm contractors and will share liability where agricultural workers are not appropriately paid, but the government did not eliminate the contract-labour system as CFU has continued to demand. Mandatory bonding and licensing of labour contractors was introduced in 1982 to be able to check on the condition of vehicles used to transport farmworkers and try to "clean up" the system. The CFU welcomed the improvements, but points out that here too, the problem is enforcement. "The bonding and licensing of contractors is helpful in a way, but what the contractors do is register with one or two vehicles and say they have a certain contract with a farm when, in fact, they have a lot more contracts and more vehicles. The government inspector is shown the good van but the WCB doesn�t have enough inspectors to check all the vehicles. So one or two vehicles are checked and that�s all. When roadblocks are set up to check on the vans, the contractors use their cell phones to call the other drivers and warn them where the inspections are," says Chouhan.

Accidents caused by unsafe vehicles have continued. In 1991 a converted school bus carrying 18 farmworkers lost its rear axle and four wheels and flipped on the Alex Fraser Bridge. The crash sent 11 people to hospital. In 1992, a van carrying 18 farmworkers in Abbotsford blew a tire and flipped, landing near the Sumas River Bridge. All but one of the people in the van were injured, some with serious spinal and head injuries. Police at the scene said some of the workers would probably have drowned if the van had rolled into the river. On Nov. 4, 1994, three farmworkers were killed when the van they were being taken to work in crashed north of Hope. There were 16 people jammed into the van at the time and police said the investigation was hampered by difficulties in getting even basic information like the victims' names from the grower.

During the 1994 harvest season, the RCMP and the B.C. Motor Vehicle Branch set up roadblocks to check out vans and buses carrying farmworkers headed for strawberry fields. A Vancouver Sun columnist present reported that the van she saw stopped had holes in the floorboards, exhaust fumes where the passengers sat, a horn that didn�t work and a loose battery as well as other problems. The van was towed away, leaving the farmworkers to wait by the side of the highway hoping to get picked up by the contractor. A representative from the labour ministry said that sometimes the contractors never show up. More than one third of the vehicles stopped and checked were condemned on the spot and towed away.

Have conditions improved for farmworkers in the Fraser Valley? In a study completed in 1994, CFU worker Satvinder Basran, Sukh Sidhu and the Matsqui-Abbotsford Community Services Farmworkers� Project surveyed 500 farmworkers working around Vancouver. Of the 340 farmworkers who responded, 90 per cent speak Punjabi as their first language, Forty six per cent were over fifty years old and 86 per cent were classified as "pickers."

According to the survey, more than half worked 9-10 hours a day and 20 per cent worked 13-14 a day on average. All had worked at least 10 hours a day at some point and 12 per cent had worked more than 16 hours a day. Although by law the farmworkers are now supposed to be paid every two weeks, 36 per cent were still being paid at the end of the season. Despite the new health and safety regulations, 23 per cent said there were no washing and toilet facilities where they were working and 34 per cent said there was no drinking water available. More than half didn�t know where to find the nearest first aid kit. For pesticides: 42 per cent had no basic knowledge of pesticides and 26 per cent said they had been sent into fields that had just been sprayed.

One quarter of those surveyed said there was discrimination in their workplace. Asked what they thought about the image of farmworkers in the community, only 10 per cent thought it was good, 36 per cent thought it was fair and more than half thought it was bad or very bad. On the positive side, Sidhu and Basran reported that nearly 90 per cent of those surveyed are eager to get more training and education and improve their English-language skills.

Among the recommendations Sidhu and Basran make are for accessible childcare. Their study showed that 23 per cent of the farmworkers still take their children with them into the fields. The call is backed up by a major study carried out by the Progressive Intercultural Community Services Society. Spearheaded by CFU co-founder Charan Gill, Farmworkers and Their Children was submitted to the Secretary of State in February 1995 with strong recommendations from Gill that a prototype daycare be set up for farmworkers for the 1995 harvest season.

The CFU, after teetering on the verge of closing for the past few years, announced a new organizing drive in September 1994. The target this time, Gill says, will be B.C.'s "hothouse" industry where vegetables, chillies and mushrooms are grown and where an estimated 2,500 Indo-Canadians work. Gill says the union is once again looking for organizers to recruit members and organize units and locals.

"The real and hard struggle lies ahead of us, for now we start on the long path of consolidating ourselves, fighting for the betterment of our lives and extending our gains to all farmworkers in B.C. and Canada. We join hands with all our toiling brothers and sisters who are striving toward a similar goal. We will strengthen the movement of the working class and will receive strength from it. We will win." - Raj Chouhan, 1980





Written Contents Copyright � Murray Bush 1995