Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/60127
Labor Seasonal workers essential but costly H aving to rely on migrant labor has never been an easy game for fruit growers in British Columbia, Canada. While a highly mobile work force—usually students from Quebec While foreign labor is readily available and more reliable than local labor, it doesn't and other parts of Canada—has traditionally given the industry access to a large pool of people able and willing to move to where work needs to be done, Bruno Gutknecht remem- bers some horror stories. "A month before picking, a person starts to get tensed up," says Gutknecht, who has seen 52 crops since he returned to his parents' farm near Vernon in 1960 and took over the business. He now farms 70 acres of orchard with his son Kevin. "Are we going to have enough help, and what come cheap. by Peter Mitham kind of help are we going to have? Are they going to be productive?" he says, recalling the questions he'd ask. "We used to have around 25 people at one time to take the crop off, because some of them weren't very fast, and some wouldn't show up. You'd have 25 and end up maybe with six, and the others wouldn't come. It was hit and miss, and it just doesn't work." But that changed when British Columbia signed on with the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program in 2004. Gutknecht began participating in 2005, and hasn't looked back. "Now, we harvest the crop with half of the people," he says. Gutknecht isn't alone. Since the program launched in Ontario in 1966, temporary foreign workers have been an important complement to local workers on Canada's farms. Today, agreements bring in workers from Barbados, Trinidad-Tobago, the eastern Caribbean, Jamaica, and Mexico. Workers are allowed to stay for up to eight months between January 1 and December 15 to help tend plants and harvest produce, labor-intensive jobs locals can't be found to do. B.C. growers employed 47 temporary foreign workers from Mexico in the province's first year as part of the program, but last year the growers requested 3,924 workers. Demand came largely from growers of fruits and nuts, with approximately 1,491 of these workers requested by growers in the Thompson- Okanagan region. The workers have been a boon for growers like Gutknecht, now 80. "It was not good, not until we got the Mexicans," he says. He typically welcomes them at the end of June to thin the developing crop, and then they spend time picking and packing cherries in Okanagan Centre until Engineered forEngineered for performance, durability, reliability, and longevity! Discover the Chinook fan blade advantage. fan blade advantage. TALLYING the costs migrants who come to Canada under the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program is different than working with domestic migrants. 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Growers are responsible for covering workers' round-trip airfare (approximately $1,500 a person between Mexico and British Columbia, although the fare for Caribbean workers is often less), providing rides to and from job sites if necessary, and medical insurance and access to medical care. There is a three- month waiting period prior to workers being eligible for B.C. medical coverage, but Great-West Life Assur- ance Company provides coverage in the interim at a rate of 98 cents per worker per day (30 cents a day cheaper). Growers are allowed to recover the cost of visas 1801 Presson Place Yakima, WA 98903 509-248-0318 fax 509-248-0914 hfhauff@gmail.com www.hfhauff.com 24 APRIL 1, 2012 GOOD FRUIT GROWER ($150 per worker). Ontario growers can recover a por- tion of transportation costs but not housing costs; growers in British Columbia can't recover transporta- tion costs but can recover accommodation costs of up to $589 for the season for Mexican workers (down from $632 last year), with an additional charge of $6.50 per day if meals are provided. Workers pay workers' compensation, employment insurance, and government pension-plan premiums. —P. Mitham www.goodfruit.com ree fruit growers in British Columbia's Okanagan Valley typically require about 3,300 seasonal workers annually. But working with foreign H. F . HA UFF C O M P A N Y I N C . FORD TRITON V-10 or IVECO NEF 6.7 DIESEL Need better performance & coverage? Trial the Chinook blade at our expense! Judge for yourself! Satisfaction Guaranteed!