Issues Facing Farm Workers in the South Okanagan - Similkameen

Who works in the orchards, vineyards and farms of the Okanagan-Similkameen?

• Some local people from the valley, of all ages and backgrounds
• Many local Indo-Canadians
• Many travelling students from Quebec and other Canadian provinces
• Some Mexican migrant workers on the BC SAWP program
• A few undocumented workers from several other countries

What kinds of issues do these workers face?

• Accomodation
  There are almost no safe, legal places for travelling workers to camp. Only BC SAWP workers are protected by housing regulations. Other workers must often resort to illegal camping at beaches, parks, riversides and roadsides. In these locations they have no washrooms or security. This kind of camping creates friction between the workers and the communities, and places the workers in a vulnerable position where they often face harassment, theft, assault and sexual harassment.
• Transportation
  Many workers have no vehicles and since there is virtually no transportation system in place, workers must often hitchhike, or walk/bicycle the long distances to and from work and shopping, again, placing them in a vulnerable position.
• Fair wages, timely payment
  Farmers and their workers are routinely underpaid for their valuable, skilled, and physically demanding work. Some employers, for a variety of reasons, do not pay their staff at the arranged time, putting the workers ina position of being unable to buy grocieris and pay bills, even though they are employed.
• Safety in the workplace
  Farm workers are exposed to dangerous working condition and often experience life-altering accidents. Unsafe conditions and injuries in agriculture are rarely reported to Work Safe BC. Sick or injured workers have little to no support.
• Access to clean drinking water
  Although employers are legally responsible to provide staff with drinking water, for a variety of reasons, workers are often required to bring their own. Many farms are in ilsoated locations and it isn't uncommon for workers to bicycle 9km to obtain drinking water. Some workers resort to drinking irrigation water, which can result in helath problems including urinary tract infections and other medical issues.
• Access to washing facilities
  Most travelling workers, with the exception of BC SAWP workers, have no access to showers or laundry facilities. It can even be difficult toproperly wash one's hands. These workers are expsoed to pesticides, but asided from that, the work itself is dirty. The fact that workers have no way of properly and privately cleaning themselves, is not only a health concern, but also makes them vulnerable to discrimination in the community. The derogatory term "dirty picker" is not uncommon.
• Discrimination in the community and the workplace
  Unfortunately, discrimination is rampant, and is based on ethnicity and cultural background ("Go back to Quebec!"), gender, age, and language. Examples incude assaults by local youth against camps of sleeping workers, verbal assaults in the community and workplace, contemptuous looks in the community and local businesses.
  
• Sexual harassment
  Sexual harassment happens to one in three females working in the agricultural sector. Occasionally it happens to boys and men as well. Sometimes this happens in the workplace, perpetrated by employers, supervisors or coworkers, and is also coomon while hitch-hiking and camping in orchards or other unregulated campsites. The isolation of the worksites as well as the lack of transportation and accomodation contribute to the vulnerabitility of farm workers, creating a fertile atmosphere for sexual harassment. Language barriers are also a factor. the youth and naiveté of some of the workers can also make them more vulnerable to sexual harasssment.

The Penticton & Area Women's Centre would like to see the local communites come together for some
brainstorming and problem-solving in seeking solutions to these issues.

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