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Topic: Nova Scotia farmer looks south for staff
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audra trower williams
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 2
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posted 20 September 2004 10:59 AM
A Nova Scotia farmer is solving a labour shortage by bringing in workers from Jamaica.By Thanksgiving, seven Jamaicans will have spent between five and seven months bringing in the crops and packaging produce on Greg Gerrits' farm in the Annapolis Valley. "For what we can afford to pay them, we can't find Canadians who are willing to do the work anymore. The people who are unemployed are not willing to do this work," says Gerrits. He pays his Jamaican labourers the same as he would Canadians – $7.20 per hour. Gerrits also pays their airfare to Canada and back to Jamaica, and provides housing. Huh.
From: And I'm a look you in the eye for every bar of the chorus | Registered: Apr 2001
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Mr. Magoo
guilty-pleasure
Babbler # 3469
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posted 20 September 2004 11:27 AM
Years ago when I lived in Dresden (Ontario, not Germany) the local cannery would bring in labourers from Jamaica. They also hired droves of students, such as myself. I'm not sure it was an issue of abysmally low pay and exploitative conditions so much as that it's exceptionally seasonal work; a few weeks and it's over. The factory needs a few hundred extra employees for the tomato run, and then there's nothing.The Jamaicans would live in dormitories near the factory, but they'd often work double shifts. You'd also see them all over the place, hanging out, buying things, etc., so with double shifts and a social life I'm not sure they needed the bunks after all! They were notorious for three things: always occupying the pay phone near the stoplight, buying just about anything they could get their hands on and sending it back to Jamaica, and wearing toques and jackets on the hottest days of the year.  A few years ago I worked with a Jamaican guy who told me his uncle used to go up to Dresden every year and loved it, despite our chilly July weather.
From: ø¤°`°¤ø,¸_¸,ø¤°`°¤ø,¸_¸,ø¤°°¤ø,¸_¸,ø¤°°¤ø, | Registered: Dec 2002
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Mr. Magoo
guilty-pleasure
Babbler # 3469
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posted 20 September 2004 01:13 PM
Exactly. The optics of a situation like this are that the wage is so low, or the conditions so horrible, that we have to bring in foreigners to "do the shit work". Or else the optics go the other way, and the local population is too shiftless and lazy to work hard, and the farmer is "forced" to import labour from another country.This sort of thing isn't all that uncommon in labour-intensive farming. That's why migrant fruit pickers are migrant.
From: ø¤°`°¤ø,¸_¸,ø¤°`°¤ø,¸_¸,ø¤°°¤ø,¸_¸,ø¤°°¤ø, | Registered: Dec 2002
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