organized

Greenhouse workers

by Lower

Mainland locals

roof that I.W.A. CANADA

is making key gains in

organizing new types of

workers and bringin

them into the union fold
can be found in the fields of the lush
Fraser Valley and Lower Mainland.
The areas in and adjacent to Greater
Vancouver are burgeoning with a
new agricultural enterprise, and the
union is there to ensure workers are
getting the best wages and benefits
they can.

We're talking greenhouses, and
this relatively recent farming
endeavour is making British Colum-
bia competitive in supplying the
demand for fresh eazetabled almost
year-round. The growing greenhouse
industry is attracting mainly
migrant workers, the same people
who have traditionally tended and
pelvered crops in B.C.’s breadbas-

et.

“We've made
improvements and
as time goes on, °
more farm workers
will be organized

and will create a
level playing field.”
-Gary Kobayashi,
1st V.P, Local 2171

Two locals of I.W.A. CANADA are
actively recruiting greenhouse work-
ers. Local 2171, the result ofa merger
between Local 1-217, the manufac-
turing-based local in Vancouver, and
Local 1-71, the historic “Loggers’
Local” in Courtenay, organizes out of
its Vancouver office. In Langley,
Local 3567 works throughout Lang-

ley and the Fraser Valley.

Many greenhouse workers are
either East Indian, from India’s agri-
culturally productive Punjab state,
Chinese, Nieinameaé or Filipino.
That means organizing materials
must be printed in several lan-
guages, notes Bob Turner, an orga-
nizer for Local 2171. The local repre-
sents workers at Gipaanda
Greenhouse Ltd’s operations in Sur-
rey and Richmond.

“We do a visual survey of the oper-
ation first,” Turner explains. “We
find out the ethnic makeup, how
many are women, and so on. Then we
distribute leaflets.”

Turner’s office contains two
shelves of files on companies he’s
working on organizing. Many repre-
sent greenhouse operations,
although Local 2171 represents a
broad range of workers.

Turner’s colleague Gordie McIn-
tosh, an organizer Local 3567, says of
the greenhouse effort: “It’s not your
traditional organizing. It’s totally an
inside thing, of workers organizing
workers.”

The ethnic nature of the work force
helps, says McIntosh. The tightly-
knit community talks issues while
socializing.

Davinder Rai confirms this.
Although East Indian, Rai is not typ-
ical of the greenhouse workforce,
having lived and worked in Canada
for many years. For 15 years he

yunched a clock at Chemainus on

ancouver Island until the sawmill
closed in the late eighties. He found
work again in Greater Vancouver,
first in plastics, then in greenhouse
work.

It was mainly the young, migrant
workers who sparked the call to orga-
nize at Gipaanda, says Rai.

“People started talking to each
other, saying, ‘What can we do?”
They didn’t know anything about
unions here, so I phoned the I.W.A.
They gave me Bob Turner’s name.”

Rai has worked since 1990 at
Gipaanda’s Surrey site, a tomato-
growing operation. He says he’s glad

° The growing greenhouse industry is attracting mainly migrant workers.

to be back in the union again — even
though he’s in an industry far
removed from the one he left, in
terms of both the type of work and the
pay. Greenhouse work is hard, dirty,
has its share of dangers and often
involves long hours, he says.

His starting rate was $8 an hour.
Wages are still low at Gipaanda, but
joining the union for the workers was
always about more than money, he
says.

° Workers talk union among themselves but kept the I.W.A. organizing drive confidential.

12/LUMBERWORKER/DECEMBER, 1999

“The owner was a nice guy,” says
Rai. But the manager hired in 1991
was a different story.

“There were no raises for six years.
My pay was stuck at $10 an hour all
that time,” Rai relates. But
Gipaanda workers also had no bene-
fits or seniority rights. There are
always layoffs in the greenhouse
business as the operation clears out
its old plants. Lacking recall rights
workers would find that years of
experience did not translate into
steady employment

The workers talked union among
themselves, but kept the organizing
drive a secret, says Rai. “Otherwise,
we would have found ourselves in
trouble.”

Turner held a series of well-
attended meetings to explain to the
Gipaanda workers the union’s struc-
ture, its dues system, service and
grievance procedures. “Normally,
these meetings don’t happen until
after the fact. But these folks were
gung-ho to join. It was a spontaneous
kind of thing, and resulted in one of
the best sign-ups I’d ever had.”

The big issues, says Turner, were
lack of seniority recall rights and
inequities in pay. “Essentially,
everyone does the same job but
weren’t all getting the same rate.
There was favourtism and nepotism.
There was no way to rectify the
wrongs. People didn’t know labour
law and what rights they had,” he
relates.

“Agricultural and textile workers
are probably the most exploited in
Canadian society,” Turner contends.
“Most don’t expect to be paid like
other workers. Employers think that
because it’s lower pay they’ve the
God-given right to harass and exploit
and treat their workers like shit.

Continued on page thirteen