Manitoba labour board says migrant farm workers can join UFCW Canada

Decision follows landmark Supreme Court decision that labour rights are human rights

WINNIPEG, MB-- June 26, 2007) - The Manitoba Labour Board (MLB) has issued a groundbreaking decision supporting the right of migrant agricultural workers in Manitoba to join a Canadian union and participate fully in collective bargaining.

The ruling regarded an application for union certification for workers employed at Mayfair Farms in Portage La Prairie including seasonal migrant workers on the farm.

In a definitive decision the MLB ruled unanimously that the workers at Mayfair Farms are entitled to be represented by UFCW Canada Local 832.

"This is a great day for the Mayfair workers," said Wayne Hanley, the National President of UFCW Canada, "and for all Manitoba agricultural workers no matter where they come from."

"It also confirms what the Supreme Court ruled earlier this June: that labour rights are human rights guaranteed under the Charter for all people working in Canada, and that includes farm workers from here or abroad."

On September 1, 2006 an application for union certification was made by UFCW Canada Local 832 to represent the 65 workers at Mayfair Farms- the majority of them being migrant workers from Mexico.

More than 65% of the workers had signed union cards with UFCW Canada Local 832, allowing them to apply for automatic certification as a bargaining unit under the Manitoba Labour Relations Act (MLRA).

The employer objected to the application citing that the workers were not employees of Mayfair farms, and that seasonal Mexican employees were not employees within the meaning of the MLRA. The certification hearings concluded in January 2007 with the board reserving its decision.

That decision has now been rendered, as the MLB struck down the employer's arguments and ruled that all farm workers in Manitoba, migrant or not, were covered by the MLRA and its provisions to unionize.

"We're pleased with the board's decision," stated UFCW Canada Local 832 President Robert Ziegler.

"This decision shows that seasonal workers who come to our province to work will be offered the same protection as Canadian workers working beside them."

For more than a decade UFCW Canada (United Food and Commercial Workers Canada) has led the campaign for farm workers' labour and health and safety rights across Canada, including the rights of migrant farm workers.

One of Canada's largest private sector unions with over 240,000 members coast to coast,  UFCW Canada operates a total of seven Migrant Agricultural Workers Support Centres in Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba and British Columbia. The Manitoba support centre in Portage La Prarie opened for the first time this Spring.

In the wake of the Manitoba decision, Hanley repeated his call to the Ontario government to drop its prohibition on unions for migrant as well as domestic agricultural workers in that province.

"Today we have a clear decision ruling from Manitoba. A few weeks ago it was the Supreme Court of Canada itself that ruled that under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms collective bargaining was a guaranteed right for all people working in Canada. That right to unionize certainly extends to include agricultural workers in Ontario, domestic and migrant, if that's what the workers want," declared Hanley.

"We shouldn't have to go back to court to enforce that but we are prepared to unless the McGuinty government rescinds their ban on farm unions which is discriminatory and ultimately an affront to the Supreme Court and particularly to these workers."

Back in Manitoba the next step for the new UFCW Canada Local 832 farm unit in Portage La Prarie will be informing the employer to commence collective bargaining.

Meanwhile UFCW Canada has three other farm union certification applications pending a decision by the Quebec Labour Relations Board. The farms are located about 25 kilometers south of Montreal, and like in Manitoba, the majority of the workers at those locations are part of a group of about 18,000 migrant workers brought temporarily to work on hundreds of Canadian farms each season.