Message to Stelmach: YOU can end the Harvest of Death
It has been 14 months since Justice Peter Barley told Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach that farm workers in Alberta should be granted the same health and safety rights as everyone else. But despite asking Justice Barley for expert advice, the premier doesn’t want to listen to it – and Alberta farm workers are paying the price. After being asked by the premier to investigate the workplace death of farm worker Kevan Chandler in 2006, Justice Barley found that farm workers must be included in Alberta’s Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) to prevent future workplace injuries and deaths. To date, Stelmach has ignored that advice, and since then 13 more people have been killed on Alberta farms in work-related accidents. And since Kevan Chandler died at work on Father’s Day nearly four years ago, an additional 59 people have been killed in agriculture-related accidents. As the leader of a majority government, Ed Stelmach is the “decider.” He has the power to save lives with the stroke of a pen by granting basic health and safety rights to farm workers in Alberta – the same rights most of us already have. To learn more, and to send a message directly to the Alberta premier, please visit www.ufcw.ca/harvestofdeath.
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