Ontario’s Agricultural Workers and Collective Bargaining: A History of Struggle

Abstract

This paper explores the history of Ontario’s labour laws as they relate to agricultural workers, examines the way these laws have been interpreted by the judiciary, provides an overview of the most recent case affirming the right of agricultural workers to bargain, and analyzes the likely effects of the Court of Appeal’s recent decision. In so doing, it provides commentary on the relationship between the labour movement, human rights and the legal system more generally, and provides specific commentary on this situation as applies to agricultural workers in Ontario. This paper is informed largely historical institutionalism, an approach which illuminates how political struggle and political actors are influenced by institutional settings (Thelen and Steinmo, 1992; Hall and Taylor, 1996). As such, it analyzes various state and societal institutions which shape how political actors- in this case the Canadian labour movement- defines their interests and structure their power in relation to that of other groups (Thelen and Steinmo, 1992: 2). The first part of the analysis begins with an overview of the relationship between the Ontario legislature, agricultural workers, and collective bargaining rights and highlights the struggles of their reliance on the legislature for progressive change. The second part of the analysis is predominantly legalistic and identifies the Charter and the Supreme Court of Canada as central institutions within the Canadian polity. It then examines the relationship between the labour movement and these institutions in recent years. An analysis