Strawberry picking season will look different this year
You’ll see masked workers, as well as possible time limits for pickers in field
The harvesting of those dark-red, juicy strawberries at B.C. farms in early June usually heralds the beginning of a summer filled with weeks of other rituals.
But it is going to be a different strawberry season this year, with more regulated U-pick fields and concerns about packed bus rides for farm workers as well as the mental health of seasonal labourers.
“The fields are not going to be an open Kodak show,” said Bill Zylmans, pointing out how strawberry picking is traditionally carefree and photo-friendly.
Instead of groups of friends or even families being able to enjoy berry picking as they wish, it will be less of a social event, said Zylmans, whose family has owned and operated W&A Farms in Richmond for more than 50 years.
“We’re going to do our utmost to give people the experience they are used to, but it won’t be the same.”
Zylmans will be issuing special containers and is thinking about having “field policemen, so we can do our part” to make sure there is proper social distancing.
U-pick strawberries usually are sold by weight, but he is also considering whether to charge for time instead.
“Are we going to limit time in the field? Some people pick faster,” he said.
Charan Gill of the Canadian Farm Workers Union said without personal protective equipment, farm workers are at risk when they travel from home to the farms on packed buses.
In the past, the buses go door to door across Metro Vancouver to pick up workers and take them to farms in Richmond, Langley, Pitt Meadows, Abbotsford, Chilliwack and elsewhere.
It can be a ride of between one and 11/2 hours, which is repeated at the end of the day, so the workers need to have proper masks and gloves, said Gill.
“They need something to protect themselves because they can’t do social distancing” on the buses.
The small buses take 18 to 20 people and the larger ones more than 30. If buses took fewer people or made a second trip, some workers would arrive too late to be useful, Gill said. For seasonal and temporary foreign workers, the main issue is accommodation in “dormitory-style bunkhouses, with a lot of workers sharing close quarters to each other, which really creates the conditions for the spread of disease,” said Natalie Drolet of Migrant Workers Centre, which supports agricultural workers in B.C.
Drolet said Canadian government agencies responsible for these workers and their programs “have left it to employers to regulate on their own. There are some inspections, but these are being done (now) over video conferencing or after giving employers 48 hours’ notice ahead of time.”
She added that after arriving in Canada, staying in a government hotel to observe a 14-day quarantine and then arriving at a farm, some workers are reporting “that employers are telling them they cannot leave the farm under any circumstances,” in the interest of curbing the spread of COVID-19.
They are, however, at risk of not being able to advocate for reasonable allowances. “They can’t have a day off where they can leave the farm, maybe go for a walk in the park, socialize (at a distance) and buy the food they actually want to eat. It’s causing a lot of mental-health issues where workers are feeling like they are at their limits.”