The Rural Voice, 1982-03, Page 22KEITH ROULSTON
Farmers can (earn from the union movement
The century had just begun when
workers across North America decided
something must be done to improve their
lot in life.
Since the beginning of the industrial
revolution one of the least considered
elements in manufacturing had been the
human factor. Skills were no longer
,important when machines could do so
much so anyone could be replaced with
another hungry man, woman or even child
from the poverty-stricken areas of the city.
Additionally, some shrewd businessmen
were becoming almost as powerful as the
government by amassing huge conglom-
erates. Individually, the workers could do
nothing to increase their safety on the job,
their working hours or their p v. Unions
were born.
The unions formed early in this century
were purely a defensive measure. They
were sorely needed but they were a
reaction to a particular need. The problem
is that though the need has changed, the
unions haven't. Today we hear the leaders
of auto unions, whose members make $20
an hour, still using the same rhetoric of the
organizers of those miserable workers
early in the century. Unions still are a
negative force. They think mostly of
monetary considerations or job security
with now and then concern expressed over
safety in the workplace. If they had
changed, if they had become more a
positive force. unions could be doing
things like organizing their own day-care
centres for workers in large factories, they
could be looking at true industrial
democracy with more worker manage-
ment, even worker ownership. Many
union leaders are afraid to touch such
issues. preferring the "comfortable" old
way of confrontation.
Why talk about this in a farm column?
Because there is something farmers can
learn from the union movement. Like
unions, marketing boards are a reaction to
a need, a need to give farmers some
bargaining power, a need to stop the
constant decline in the number of people
able to earn a living from the farm.
But the danger is that marketing boards
can become a long term negative force like
the unions if the leadership is not ready to
see the boards evolve, to see them move
from a purely economic union to a more
PO. 20 THE RURAL VOICE/MARCH 1982
positive force in agriculture and the
economy.
Country Canada recently broadcast a
program on agriculture in Israel. It was
tremendously enlightening. Israel as a
country has existed barely 30 years.
Much of that time has been spent at war.
The Israelis took over a land that was
mostly desert. Nearly all the water must
come through irrigations from a single
source, the Sea of Gallilee. The population
is one-eighth of Canada's but the land
area is miniscule by comparison. Yet
Israel is self sufficient in foorl halancing
what imports it must make with an equal
value of exports. By comparison, Canada,
with all its resources, is only ten per cent
better.
Marketing boards in Israel are active in
aggressive foreign market development.
Few of the marketing boards in Canada
are concerned with anything but getting
their proper share of the national pie.
Marketing boards have shown little
interest in the problems of young farmers
getting into the business. Some, like the
Milk Marketing Board. have shown little
concern for their partners in the industry.
the small processors like cheese factories
which have been driven into the hands of
fewer and fewer large companies because
of quota problems.
Marketing_ boards are good, probably
essential tools in keeping farmers farm-
ing. But as farmers in more and more
sectors take a look at this alternative, let's
also make sure they are as good in the
long -run as the short.
Keith Roulston who grew up on a farm
near Lucknow is a playwright and
administrator of the Blyth Centre for the
Arts. He's a former publisher of Rural
Voice.
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