Laws: October, 2003 - Number #10

The Ontario Canada government does not allow agricultural workers to join a union and bargain collectively. Despite this prohibition, the Ontario Labor Relations Board announced on September 2, that they would proceed with the counting of ballots from a July 7 vote by workers at a mushroom production faculty. The United Food and Commercial Workers Canada submitted an application for certification on June 23. Europe. There were over 500,000 legal foreign workers admissions for seasonal employment in European agriculture in 2000, according to Caritas, including 250,000 in Germany; 120,000 in Greece; 32,300 in Spain; 30,300 in Italy; and 28,400 in Austria (individuals admitted more than once are counted each time). France once employed over 100,000 seasonal foreign farm workers, but in 2000 had just 7,100; the Netherlands, 6,300; and Sweden 2,800. The farm labor market in the UK was in the spotlight in 2003, as Parliament's environment food and rural affairs select committee released a report, "Gangmasters," that concluded: "The enforcement agencies are insufficiently resourced and lack the political backing to make a significant impact on illegal activity within the agriculture and horticulture labor market." The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said it was working on a code of good practice and accreditation system for labor suppliers; the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) is working on a private code so that the 3,000 FLCs organizing and deploying 75,000 workers to farms and packinghouses each year in England can identify themselves. The summer 2003 heat that led to deaths for thousands of elderly Europeans also produced an early bumper crop of wine grapes: the 2003 vintage may be one for the record books, along with the harvests of 1997, 1976, and 1947.