Welcome Back To The Farm?

The bedrock of modern Canada was laid down by farmers, those early settlers who accepted that parcel of land and the challenge to clear it of forest or give it up. They worked hard and cultivated a nation from the soil. Times have changed.

An interesting story came up in the local press today concerning a greenhouse operation who allegedly laid off 26-27 local workers and immediately replaced them with migrant labour from Guatemala.

http://stcatharinesstandard.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1684459

At first glance, it appears that the employer has manipulated employment legislation and the Federal Governments Migrant Worker Program to “clean house” and reduce costs. Certainly if this is what has happened the employer deserves to be held to account for their actions and my first “gut” reaction was more or less along those lines.

Later in the day I had a chance to think it through. Having in the past worked in local vineyards, peach orchards and greenhouses and maintaining links with them, I have one or two insights that may or may not be relevant.

During my time working in the agriculture industry in Niagara I quickly learned a few “facts of life”. One glaringly obvious fact was that there were very few locals working there if any. Hence the need for the Migrant Workers Program. Of those who did brave the elements only the highly motivated and productive lasted any length of time. I quickly learned to keep up with the fastest workers and make sure I was “useful” to my employers or I knew I wouldn’t be coming back. Modern Agriculture has no time or margins for the unproductive.

Another fact I quickly learned was that all workers are not equal. This is in reference to the Employment Standard Act which in key areas does not apply to agricultural workers. For example, yesterday while the rest of the province was enjoying the Civic Holiday, agricultural workers all over Ontario were working as usual. A request had been put in to mother nature asking that she please halt all growth of weeds, mould, bacteria and pests for the day but unfortunately no response had been forthcoming.

The point is that agriculture is an intrinsically seasonal activity, hence the need for seasonal workers and casual labour. There are very few full-time permanent positions in the industry. Historically this combined with low wages has led to locals opting for better paid or less taxing work that has usually been readily available up until fairly recently.

The thing that had really got me thinking was a story I had recently been told by a friend who just happens to be a local vineyard manager. He told me that he already has his crew of 10 highly trained Mexican vineyard workers that he has built up over many years who are highly skilled and productive. At busy times large amounts of extra labour may be required, this means calling on farm labour pools and other sources for temporary workers. Having found local casual labour pools to usually send untrained workers who were often incapable of performing the work to the standard required productively or simply didn’t seem to care and where just there to “book hours” he decided that he was not willing to jeopardize a multi-million dollar operation with these hands.

So he looked further. He found a local private labour supplier whose gang of 50-60 Polish and Ukrainian immigrants were experienced vineyard workers. A definite improvement you would think and the workers certainly moved faster if still nowhere near as quickly and efficiently as the Mexicans. It quickly became clear however that although they were quicker, these workers were not performing the tasks as instructed. The manager spoke to the gang’s supervisor and explained that this was an experimental vineyard and that all decisions were being taken with close attention to scientific study and that new techniques were being used. The supervisor seemed uninterested and told the manager “If you don’t like it, do what you want!” knowing that the manager needed the workers and had no choice but to let them finish the work. The workers continued to perform the tasks as they always had apparently unwilling to change.

Exasperated and now quite probably in a losing battle with nature, the manager did not call the gang back the next time they were needed. Instead he contacted another private labour provider, this time a group of Vietnamese workers. He explained to their supervisor the problems he’d had with other temporary workers. The supervisor translated all the instructions to the group and the work was done efficiently and accurately. Despite paying $2 per hour more to each worker, the work was done in half the time and exactly to instructions saving the vineyard many thousands of dollars over the season and contributing to a healthy, high quality crop.

I don’t know what really happened in that greenhouse, but I did notice that many of the workers fired were older local workers who are not traditionally the kind of workers you would normally expect to see in those jobs. Over the last year or so the recession has forced many locals to take up agricultural jobs they would in better times have avoided. As I mentioned earlier modern agriculture needs tough, healthy, hardy, adaptable and motivated labour.

Having said that, I do in fact have personal knowledge of many local workers who cannot get hired at the greenhouse in question and if the readers comments to the story linked above are anything to go by then something really is seriously amiss down there.

As our economies shift in response to globalism and our communities need to find new ways to survive in the volatile, uncertain economies we find ourselves, agriculture may yet again become a more realistic option for many who previously would have been employed in manufacturing or other industries that are fast disappearing. Times may indeed have changed but one things for sure, they will continue to do so.

So, welcome back to the farm, it’s a different world.