CHAPTER 7: Talking Union

While much of the union’s activities were focused on legal battles and demonstrations, it was also addressing the "social movement" side of its mandate. The organizers have always considered the CFU "unique" in that it isn't like unionizing one specific plant or office. Traditional Canadian unionizing techniques didn't always work with members who were often people who spoke little or no English, had little or no formal education, were from another culture and had very limited financial resources.

Even before the union was officially sanctioned, the Farm Workers' Organizing Committee started producing a bilingual Punjabi/English newspaper. The first issue of The Farmworker in August 1979 featured hand-written headlines and typewritten stories.

In its first editorial, The Farmworker laid out its purpose: "...It is important for us to keep our growing membership, sympathizers and the general public informed. It is also important to counter the false claims propagated by the owners and contractors to confuse people. It is to meet this task, which will become more and more important with the growth of our work, that we are beginning the publication of this paper."

The Farmworker has continued to publish, although sporadically, ever since. The design has changed with the volunteers producing it, as has its focus, depending on the union’s activities. The paper has always been published in English and Punjabi, but was triliteral (with French) while the union was organizing the mostly French-Canadian fruit pickers in the Okanagan. In the early 1980s some issues also contained Chinese as part of the CFU’s unsuccessful bid to attract Chinese pickers.

The union has also cranked out resource material for farmworkers and sympathizers on the union itself, legal rights for farmworkers, health and safety issues and on the ESL Crusades.

The CFU recognized that one of the major stumbling blocks for many farmworkers was not being able to speak and understand English, and that traditional English as a Second Language classes didn’t work for them. A 1981 union survey showed that older women had the greatest desire to learn English, but were often hampered by limited formal education and limited mobility that made going out to ESL classes difficult. Many also had a lack of time because of the double workload of farm work and housework. The 1981 survey concluded that "traditional ESL classes make no allowance for students who are illiterate in their first language, and these learners invariably fall behind. Materials are often foreign to the daily lives, experience and culture of farmworkers. Such factors erode the motivation and confidence needed to tackle a new language."

Looking to political literacy crusades in third world countries such as Nicaragua during the Sandinista Revolution, the CFU’s ESL Crusades adapted the philosophy of Brazilian educator Paulo Freire to the situation of B.C. farmworkers. In February, 1981, the union organized a public meeting in support of the Sandinista Revolution and were inspired by key speaker Nicaraguan Agriculture Minister Francisco Campbell. The approach has been to "encourage the poor and oppressed to take a critical look at the causes of problems in their lives and to do something about them." Working with the B.C. Teachers’ Federation and Frontier College, the union developed its first ESL Crusade focusing on the English that workers need to learn: some basic survival English and some that relates specifically to farm work. With financial help from the BCTF, the union launched its first crusade in the fall of 1982.

The CFU organized classes in families’ houses to make it easier for people to attend. Neighbours within walking distance were encouraged to join in. The Farmworker reported in 1988 that "the result has almost always been a range of abilities in each class , which makes teaching more challenging. It is a necessary compromise, however, because students, especially women, are reluctant to leave home for classes. Also, with full family participation, classes have more importance and credibility, which provides more support for the women."

Because the CFU’s English classes were designed specifically for farmworkers, special materials had be used developed as teaching aids. In 1985, artist Shirley McGrew produced a set of "problem-posing" drawings dealing with issues such as Waiting for the Labour Contractor, Bringing Strawberries to The Scales and Union Organizers Come to The Farm. With accompanying text by ESL co-ordinator David Jackson, the course posed questions for the students about their own working conditions and possible solutions.

As the main focus for the union shifted in the mid-1980s to pesticides and worker safety, several projects were produced to supplement the learning material. The ESL students were shown a 1984 "video drama" produced by Craig Berggold and the DEOL Society entitled Farmworkers Zindabad, which concentrated on health and safety in the work place. As well, Berggold and Sybil Faigin produced a poison control "photostory" in 1988 for the Deol Society. With funding from Health and Welfare Canada, the Farmworkers' Health Improvement Project produced the video Caught in a World of Pesticides.

During his tenure as artist-in-residence, Berggold also produced a multi-media photo installation on health and safety issues entitled A True Story - Health and Safety Now! that was shown at the 1986 MayWorks Festival in Toronto.

Sadhu Binning, author of the 1982 case study of the CFU, had, by the mid-1980s, turned his hand to writing plays. Binning and Sukhwant Hundal wrote Picket Line, a Punjabi-language play about conditions for women working on mushroom farms. In 1987 they were commissioned to write another play, Crop of Poison, for the Deol Society. Crop of Poison, which toured the Fraser Valley with the Vancouver Sath theatre troup, deals with a young farmworker who falls ill after being exposed to pesticides.

One of the most successful projects was the 40-minute documentary A Time To Rise, co-produced by Anand Patwhaden and Jim Munro in 1982. The film was produced with help from several church and community groups as well as the National Film Board, which distributes the video. While it has been shown across Canada and won the Silver Dove Award at the Leipzig Festival in then East Germany, it was not as warmly received in India. The censor board in New Delhi held the film and the Times of India speculated the board was worried the film might "strain relations between Canada and India." Patwardhan wasn't given a reason for the hold-up, but concluded that "the board was either afraid of the strong pro-union sentiment or they were afraid of how Canadians would react to the expose' of bad working conditions for immigrants in Canada, especially for immigrants predominantly from India."

Vancouver musicians, spearheaded by musician/activist Julius Fisher, produced a music cassette called Talking Union, Songs For Organizing in 1987. Well-known visual artist Claire Kudjundzic produced a graphic for tape, which has also been used on posters and T-shirts used for fund raising. The tape includes music by Phil Vernon, Jane Sapp, Balwinder Rode, Ramesh Pumbahak, Si Kahn, Hemi, Tom Hawken, Ginger Group Nizar Damji, Aya and the Euphoniously Feminist Non-performing Quartet, produced by Fisher's Slim Evans Records.

The only time local artists came up short was in the design of the union's logo. In April 1980, The Farmworker newspaper advertised a contest to design a new logo for the CFU. The winner was promised "a free dinner for two at a fine East Indian Restaurant," but the paper reported in April 1981 that "the response was not overwhelming." CFU President Raj Chouhan finally designed the logo himself incorporating "the rising sun in the background to indicate our growing strength."