Agricultural Labour Relations in Ontario

Ontario is Canada’s largest agricultural centre. The evidence is clear to us, and to the tens of thousands of agricultural workers we have had direct contact in Ontario, that their ability to organize is hobbled by provincial legislation. This has been the case since the creation of the Ontario Labour Relations Act, except for a very brief period in the 1990s.

In 1993, the Agricultural Labour Relations Act ("ALRA") was proclaimed, giving Ontario agricultural workers the right to join a union of their choice and bargain collectively. Prior to the passage of the ALRA, the government consulted with UFCW Canada as the principal workers' representative. The ALRA was unanimously recommended by a ministerial advisory committee which included agricultural owner organizations, such as the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, and UFCW Canada.

A definition of the family farm was also agreed upon in the ALRA and UFCW Canada publicly stated that it was not interested in organizing family farms. The UFCW intended to focus efforts on corporate agribusiness operations, such as factory-style hatcheries, mushroom farms, livestock feedlots, and the massive greenhouses in the Leamington area.

The ALRA was proclaimed into law to extend the right to bargain collectively to agricultural workers while at the same time eliminating the historical barrier which discriminated against agricultural workers in Ontario.

In early 1995, after a difficult campaign, UFCW Canada Local 1993 became the first ALRA-certified bargaining agent, representing approximately 200 workers at Highline Produce, a year-round mushroom factory in Leamington employing mainly immigrants, many of whom could not speak or read English. To our knowledge, this was the only bargaining unit certified under the ALRA.

UFCW Canada Local 1993 established to the satisfaction of the Ontario Labour Relations Board that in excess of 55 percent of the employees wished to be represented by the UFCW pursuant to the ALRA, and as such, Local 1993 was automatically certified as the bargaining agent for these employees.