Help for migrant workers urged

CREDIT: Ian Lindsay, Vancouver Sun Norlene White (left) and farm worker Victoria Adams Hernandez, with photos of son Eric, age 1.

The young woman crying and clutching her stomach on an orchard-lined road near Oliver didn’t know the English word for “help.” But judging the expression of pain on her face, Norlene White and David Johnson knew they had to pull over.

So began their four-day effort to help a stranger from Mexico — a 23-year-old migrant farm worker and single mother, Victoria Adams Hernandez — get medical help, full payment for her work and safe passage home to Mexico.

New immigrants have long harvested B.C.’s berries and vegetables, but it’s only in the past three years that a federal program has been targeting seasonal agricultural workers from overseas, with an agreement between the province and Mexico.

In 2004, the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program attracted 47 Mexican farm workers to B.C.

This year, the number has already grown to 1,238, and the picking season is not yet over.

But Okanagan residents White and Johnson have come to believe that the program is unprepared to deal with the inevitable growth of conflicts between migrant farm workers and their employers.

Hernandez relayed her story last week at the Surrey office of the Progressive Intercultural Community Services Society, an organization that helps immigrant and migrant farm workers.

White, 47, said Hernandez spoke only three words of English when she approached the car on Monday afternoon: airport, Vancouver and Mexico.

White and Johnson, 53, managed to track down a Spanish-speaking translator in Osoyoos, finding out that Hernandez was from San Luis Potosi, north of Mexico City. She left behind her son, Eric Alejandro Adams Hernandez, who will turn one year old on Sept. 1.

She arrived in Canada on June 26 and began working for Jarnail Singh Gill, owner of Southern Fruit Packers, a fruit-growing operation near Oliver.

Through a translator, Hernandez told The Vancouver Sun she worked 13-hour days, seven days a week harvesting and sorting cherries, apricots and peaches, and preparing boxes for fruit packing.

Hernandez fell ill in mid-July with a urinary-tract infection that was later diagnosed by a doctor. At Gill’s farm, Hernandez said, she was not allowed to rest or take bathroom breaks.

The society filed a formal complaint on Hernandez’s behalf with the Employment Standards Branch of the B.C. Ministry of Labour on Friday. Hernandez alleges her employer owes her $1,241 in pay and forced her to work excessive hours.

Pavan Joshi, legal advocacy worker for the community services society, also filed a verbal complaint with Service Canada, which helps administer the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program that brought Hernandez to Canada.

Hernandez’s employer, Gill, said Hernandez did not inform him she was sick until days after she fell ill.

“I found out she was going to the washroom every 15 or 20 minutes, which is not acceptable,” he said in a phone interview on Friday.

He said his six Mexican workers work only eight to 10 hours a day and most choose to work seven days a week. He confirmed that Hernandez had worked more than 300 hours for him, but said she was paid up until her last week, and missed the last $700 cheque because she left without informing him. He said he has forwarded it to the Mexican consulate.

When disputes like this arise, workers are advised to contact the Mexican consulate, said Ron Marshall, a spokesman for Service Canada. He said the Canadian government’s responsibility ends once workers enter Canada.

But White said she was appalled by the response of the Mexican consulate, which told her to either send Hernandez back to the farm or keep her until the end of August.

White said both options were unacceptable and found a place for Hernandez stay for one night until she found out about the Progressive Intercultural Community Services Society. The society has since billeted Hernandez with a Spanish-speaking family.

In an interview Friday, Mercedes Vazquez, vice-consul for the Mexican consulate in Vancouver, said some of Hernandez’s co-workers were initially skeptical about Hernandez’s illness because she had missed work in the past, before falling ill.

“It was believed that she was making it up,” Vazquez said in a phone interview Friday. “The employer said she was not a very good worker and sometimes missed days of work. The other workers are very happy with the employer and the employer is happy with the workers.”

Employees are supposed to go through the official channels to resolve work issues, said Vazquez.

“When they abandon the farm and the program, they’re completely by themselves. The employer is no longer responsible for the worker. If she goes to the doctor, the insurance is not going to cover her,” she said.

Charan Gill, executive director of the Progressive Intercultural Community Services Society and secretary-treasurer of the Canadian Farmworkers’ Union, said he was able to negotiate with Vazquez on Friday and Hernandez is now scheduled to fly back to Mexico on Thursday.

In an interview Sunday, White and Johnson said they were happy to hear Hernandez is being sent home. But Johnson said he thinks an independent group should be set up to monitor the working conditions of migrant workers and investigate and resolve conflicts between workers and employers.

Charan Gill conceded that migrant workers need help beyond the Mexican consulate.

“Mostly, we have so far seen, they have taken the sides of the employers,” said Gill.

Glen Lucas, general manager of the B.C. Fruit Growers’ Association, said his organization is in the process of trying to set up an umbrella group to deal with conflicts and communication issues between employers and foreign agricultural workers.

“The program is growing and we see a stage at which it’s going to overwhelm the association,” he said.

He added the program provides much-needed labour for Canadian farmers and valuable jobs for poor Mexicans.

“We want this program to continue to be successful,” said Lucas.

echung@png.canwest.com