View cases - Stewart McKelvey

Agriculture and Food, the Honourable Helen Johns, was unequivocal when she introduced thelegislation in confirming that the legislation included no right to collective bargaining:However, I need to make one thing very clear here. While an agricultural employeemay join an association that is a union, the proposed legislation does not extendcollective bargaining to agricultural workers.(Legislative Assembly of Ontario, Official Report of Debates (Hansard), No. 46A,October 22, 2002, at p. 2339 (emphasis added))2011 SCC 20 (CanLII)This was based on the legislative goal of complying only with the rights required by Dunmore,rights which, as the Minister correctly noted, addressed only the “right to associate”, not the“right to collectively bargain”:I’d like to say that the Supreme Court was very clear. They said that agriculturalworkers across the province had the right to associate. They did not say that they hadthe right to collectively bargain.(Legislative Assembly of Ontario, Official Report of Debates (Hansard), No. 43A,October 16, 2002, at p. 2128 (emphasis added))[333] Judging from their conduct, the parties involved in this appeal seem to have acceptedthere were no protections for the process and enforcement of collective bargaining in the AEPA.The United Food and Commercial Workers Union Canada represented workers at Rol-LandFarms Ltd. After a vote in which an overwhelming majority voted in favour of certification, theunion wrote to Rol-Land requesting a meeting to begin negotiations. The owner of Rol-LandFarms did not respond to the letter and refused to recognize the union. The same union alsorepresented employees at Platinum Produce, where the employer gave the union the opportunity