British Columbia Federation of Labour

First published in the Vancouver Sun, March 14, 2007

The March 7 death of three female farm workers, when the overloaded passenger van they were travelling in crashed east of Abbotsford, left us with a simple choice.

We all know B.C. farm workers are being exploited and their lives threatened; the only question is whether we act to put an end to it.

It's become a familiar news story, footage of a crumpled van, followed by a few days of funerals and families left behind. Just like the 2003 death of farm worker Mohinder Sunar, who suffocated under the weight of other farm workers in another overloaded van without seatbelts.

We should have learned from Sunar's death. A coroner's report and an analysis from the Workers' Compensation Board made recommendations that would have made a difference and helped prevent last week's deaths. Instead, the recommendations, including cleaning up the Motor Vehicle Act and reinstating multi-agency inspections, were ignored by the provincial government.

Unbelievably, despite this recent tragedy, the government's first response was to claim it was doing everything possible and suggest any thoughts otherwise were "immoral." That is so wrong!

The depth of the crisis in this industry became blatantly obvious only three days after these three women lost their lives. On Saturday, I travelled to the Chilliwack greenhouse, the destination of those women that fateful morning. I wanted to see where they worked, maybe ask to visit inside and learn more about the operations. Two days earlier, greenhouse representatives claimed they, too, had no responsibility. It was only the contractor who was responsible.

Even before the funerals have been held, I witnessed an employer's complete lack of fear of punishment, and no respect for workers' safety; this time from the greenhouse company itself. A group of women, one too many for the number of seats and seatbelts available, was ordered to "get in the van." On a seat built for two passengers, a third woman was added. No seatbelt, no room. Another death waiting to happen.

After several days of cabinet ministers avoiding responsibility, Solicitor-General John Les announced the restoration of roadside spot checks. No additional resources, no co-ordination, no staff, no plans for better laws. In fact, it's only planned, according to Les, for an "interim basis."

We are willing to work to find solutions. The B.C. Federation of Labour has met with the RCMP. We're meeting today with the WCB and other agencies to discuss comprehensive solutions. We've talked with the families; we've visited jobsites.

We published a comprehensive report three years ago. We can only conclude that the solutions to stopping these needless deaths are within reach and simply require the government to listen and to take decisive action to protect farm workers.

When we meet Thursday with the labour minister, we'll be joined by representatives of farm workers and family members of the deceased. We will present a comprehensive and common-sense set of recommendations. They won't stop at what happens to farm workers when they get in a van. They will include recommendations to ensure the labour of farm workers is respected by ensuring a safe journey to work and a jobsite where basic health and safety and employment standards are not only respected, but enforced.

Anything less and the message will continue to be that farm workers are expendable and are second-class citizens within our province.

Will the government listen? This government's track record is terrible when it comes to farm workers.

Under pressure from employers and growers, the government rewrote the law in 2003 to strip the rights of farm workers to statutory holiday pay, to vacation pay, to overtime, to rest periods and to fair piece-work rates. No other workers suffered the same setbacks.

To compound the problem, the government went one disastrous step further -- it gutted the Agriculture Compliance Team, removing any hope that farm workers would enjoy even minimal protection for employment standards and safety.

But times change. This government must act. Not a political fix announced to appease Opposition critics and hope the public attention fades until the next horrible deaths take place.

British Columbians don't want some of our most vulnerable workers facing a life and death decision on whether to go to work.