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Artículo

31 Ago 2023

Autor:
Zak Vescera, The Tyee (Canada)

Canada: Workers & advocates describe abusive, unsafe working conditions on BC farms

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"A case of bad apples, or a rotten orchard?"

...

Each year, thousands of migrant farm workers travel to British Columbia to harvest the province’s offerings: cherries, corn, cucumbers, plums, peaches, grapes for wine. Farming makes up one per cent of B.C.’s GDP; fruit sales alone are worth about $460 million a year...

Despite farmers’ reliance on temporary foreign workers, consular officials, advocates and workers themselves say they are too often mistreated by their bosses.

The Tyee spoke to more than a dozen farm labourers for this story, as well as nine outreach workers who routinely visit these farms, where employers almost always double as landlords. Many described cases of employers physically or verbally abusing their employees, and they also described abhorrent housing conditions well below the standard set by senior governments, a subject The Tyee will explore in detail in the next instalment in this series...

Representatives of the farming industry say that characterization of the program is unfair. Glen Lucas, the manager of the B.C. Fruit Growers’ Association, says problems on these farms are a case of isolated and unfortunate incidents: bad apples, not a rotten orchard. “There’s this idea that we’re painted with one colour. But it’s a complicated picture,” Lucas said.

But even employers agree governments are not doing enough to catch and punish employers who break the rules. Outreach workers say when federal agents do visit farms, their visits are often perfunctory, and that they sometimes do not even speak to workers...