A crowded van picks up an elderly Punjabi grandmother. After a 45-minute unpaid ride to the farm, she picks blueberries in the hot sun for up to 10 hours with no overtime pay. If she slows down or takes too many breaks in the shade, the contractor may arbitrarily decide she hasn’t earned enough hours to qualify for EI to top up her sparse winter income. If the harvest is poor or her employer doesn’t record berry weights accurately, she often earns less than minimum wage.

No one would wish this on their grandmother.

The Vancouver Sun recently published an op-ed by Coalition members David Fairey and Anelyse Weiler on the sub-minimum piece rate wage for farm workers. They urge the provincial government to ensure all farm workers at least have equal access to the minimum wage, pointing out that this is entirely compatible with productivity incentives.

The Tyee also published an op-ed this week by Weiler and Amy Cohen, a Professor at Okanagan College, on how federal labour-migration policy creates vulnerability to sexual violence for women migrant farm workers.