A tractor accident in Surrey this week in which five agriculture workers were injured has United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) Canada renewing its call for the B.C. government to implement tougher worker-transport laws recommended in a 2007 accident report.
The injured workers, who were employed by Greenway Farms near Surrey, were riding on a stack of produce boxes in a tractor wagon when a pickup truck clipped the wagon.
The driver of the pickup truck was arrested, but so far no charges have been laid against the employer for transporting workers unsafely.
A coroner’s inquest in 2007 following the death of three workers recommended that new regulations, including strict third-party inspection standards, be created to ensure safe transportation of farm workers.
Three farm workers were killed after the van they were riding in flipped. Fourteen other people who were crammed in the 10-person van were injured.
UFCW national president Wayne Hanley said it was shameful the B.C. government rejected the recommendations stemming from that accident.
“The way the system is working now, cattle are trucked more safely than agriculture workers,” he said.
Added Hanley: “How many more workers have to be killed or injured before the authorities in British Columbia and Alberta and Ontario stop treating agriculture workers like disposable commodities, and start ensuring that the health and safety of the workers who put food on our tables is properly protected?”