Tag Archives: Immigrant Workers

New op-ed on sub-minimum piece rate wage for farm workers

Posted on by
Reply

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.

 

Sponsoring “The Hand That Feeds” Feb 11 at Just Film Festival

Posted on by
Reply

The BC Employment Standards Coalition, along with the BC Federation of Labour, is pleased to be co-sponsoring the screening of The Hand That Feeds as part of the Just Film Festival. It will be screened on Thursday, February 11th as the second film in a double-feature, with the first film beginning at 7pm. Tickets can be purchased here.

At a popular bakery café, residents of New York’s Upper East Side get bagels and coffee served with a smile 24 hours a day. Behind the scenes, undocumented immigrant workers face sub-legal wages, dangerous machinery and abusive managers who will fire them for calling in sick.

Risking deportation and job loss, the workers team up with innovative young organizers and form their own independent union, launching themselves on a journey that will test the limits of their resolve. In one roller-coaster year, they must overcome a shocking betrayal and a two-month lockout. Lawyers battle in back rooms and workers walk the picket line with support from the “Occupy” crowd. If they can win a contract, it will set a historic precedent. But whatever happens, these workers will never be the same.

The BC Employment Standards Coalition will also be present for a Q&A after the film to share ideas about how the issues depicted in the film, which is situated in New York, relate to the local context in BC.