When the Alberta New Democratic Party (NDP) earned a majority government victory in the May 5 provincial election, it was a dream come true for Eric Musekamp and his wife, Darlene Dunlop.
For 15 years the couple had fought an often lonely, albeit determined, battle against the longstanding Progressive Conservative government to win equality rights for the province’s disenfranchised 12,000 farm workers.
But with the new labour-friendly NDP government, it is time at last for the couple, whose long campaign runs under its fledging Farmworkers Union of Alberta (FUA) flag, to see the end of farm workers’ exclusion from protection under provincial occupational health and safety (OHS) laws, workers’ compensation legislation and the labour relations and employment standards codes – benefits all other workers in Alberta are afforded.
“We are quite flabbergasted with the New Democrats’ magnificent success. Quite frankly, I didn’t expect it,” said the 62-year-old Musekamp, the FUA president who lives with Dunlop in the ghost town of Winnifred in Southern Alberta.
“It really is a different feel here,” he added of the change of attitude between the NDP and the Tory governments. “I was always kind of a skunk when I was here (Edmonton) and I would slither with my white stripe and everyone would kind of shudder, and now we actually got hugs. It is quite a different feeling, let me tell you.”
But since that election, as the new NDP government finds its bearings in running the province, the couple is still fighting and clawing to have their message fully accepted by key agriculture and labour ministerial officials, who have all said in the past, along with Premier Rachel Notley, that ‘ending the unfair treatment of farm workers’ was a priority.
Last week, Musekamp and Dunlop were in Edmonton once again to convince the new NDP government that the time is now to end the exclusion of basic rights for farm workers in Alberta, the last province in Canada to hold on to the notion the group should not be afforded the same workers’ rights as all others.
“He’s asking for a little bit of patience,” said Musekamp, of his meeting last week with Agriculture Minister Oneil Carlier, who promised earlier in the month the NDP government would bring in new regulations to protect Alberta’s farm workers but was not clear on how they should be rolled out. “I couldn’t get a commitment out of them but they are definitely going to consider that idea. I pointed out to them this policy of exclusion belonged to this government, this minister and the next guy that is going to get killed or injured and thrown into financial ruin will be on this government’s plate.”
According to statistics from the provincial government, 447 Alberta farmers died on the job between 1985 and 2010.
What has frustrated the couple and their supporters from recent statements from the new NDP government is the idea that further consultations are needed with the agriculture industry, despite the many government studies with stakeholders that go back to 2002. The industry has conceded there needs to be better safety education for the dangerous work conditions farm workers face but has long been resistant to legislative change on the argument it would present financial challenges to many of the province’s 49,000 farm operations, the majority of them family operated.
“We don’t need another study. What is with these governments? They just want studies after studies after studies and we end up forking out all this excess money,” said Philippa Thomas, a 56-year-old resident of Cochrane who was permanently injured in 2006 while working as a farm worker at a local equestrian facility. “People are not protected. They have no rights under law. We have no labour code protection. All that is, as far as I can see as a non-politician, is that you sign a piece of paper, you say it is done, get rid of that legislation that says we are not protected and off we go.”
Carlier was invited by the Mountain View Gazette through his press secretary to comment on further consultations with the agriculture industry, but he was not immediately available. However, Alberta Labour Minister Lori Sigurdson told the Gazette last week that consultations would go ahead, despite the fact that this province is the only jurisdiction in Canada that does not extend workplace protection to farm and ranch workers.
“We are at the early part of looking into this and certainly we are going to be speaking with all stakeholders in determining the best course of action,” said Sigurdson. “We want to consider everyone’s perspective, so we need to consult as a government first before we make any specific decisions about which direction to go in.
“It is not a simple issue. It is a complex issue. There’s many different aspects,” Sigurdson emphasized, adding she can’t give any timelines yet on when legislative changes would be made or even when discussions with stakeholders would take place.
But for Musekamp, change has to come as “soon as possible”, noting he recently reminded Sigurdson and other government officials that the province now has “unfettered” child labourers working on farms in dangerous and unsupervised settings.
“It needs to be addressed quickly because they (children) are in peril,” said Musekamp, adding the only consultations that need to take place with the agriculture industry is to let stakeholders know what new legislative amendments will be made, with no opinions sought.
“They (government officials) said ‘we need to do some consultations’ and I threw it up at them that was the exact line the other government used, which is just bafflegab for doing nothing,” Musekamp said.
Despite the current challenges in getting the ball rolling immediately with the new NDP government on workplace reform for Alberta’s farm workers, hope is still higher for Musekamp and his supporters than it has ever been, as they are certain change will happen sooner rather than later.
“I have always been optimistic. I have no choice but to be optimistic. My disease does not allow me to be anything else. The disease I have is a life sentence,” said Thomas, who still endures painful complex regional pain syndrome as a result of her 2006 accident. “We have waited so long. It will get done. I just don’t expect them (NDP) to table it right away. They are brand new to this. Give them some time. It will be done. They have promised this for a long time.”
