Union Zindabad! — South Asian Canadian Labour History in British Columbia

Indian People’s Association of North America
(IPANA). Its earliest members included Harinder
Mahil, Raj Chouhan and Chin Banerjee. These
men were already friends who recognized that
farmworkers in British Columbia were being
exploited.
At an IPANA meeting in 1979, Chouhan and
Mahil agreed to attempt to organize the farmworkers.
Both had personally experienced the working
conditions on farms, and both had connections to
the labour movement.
Harinder Mahil described the formation of the
Farmworkers Organizing Committee (FWOC).
“Some of us who were members of IPANA had
worked in the agriculture industry here, Raj
Chouhan was one of them. We also knew of
people who were working in the agricultural
industry primarily picking up berries, strawberries,
raspberries, blueberries and being exploited. There
was no coverage, they were not seen as workers.
They were not covered under labour legislation,
the Employment Standards Act, which sets
minimum standards for workers in the province.”
Mahil, Chouhan and the others could see that
the dreaded labour contractor system that South
Asian workers had fought against for so long was
once again in place for farmworkers.
“There was a contract system, contractors who
were mostly Indo-Canadian would take these
workers to farms and they would get a certain
percentage of the worker’s salary as their cut,” said
Mahil. “At an IPANA meeting I said, “we should
Farm Workers’ Organizing Committee rally, November 3, 1979
Sean Griffin photo, Image MSC160-489_02A.
Courtesy Pacific Tribune Photo Collection, Simon Fraser University Library.
A Farm Workers Organizing Committee (FWOC) meeting
in the Fraser Valley, mostly attended by women, 1979. “The
main objective for the FWOC was to expose the conditions
of farmwork for seasonal workers in the Fraser
Valley. The approach was to work with farmworkers, to
lobby the government and to undertake public education.”
Photos-132, Canadian Farmworkers Photo Collection, Simon Fraser University Library.
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