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Vancouver Sath's play 'Picket Line' based on the Hoss Farm women mushroom workers who joined the CFU and fought to improve working conditions. Toured Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley, BC.

A general overview of number of farms and crops, like tobacco, vegetable, berries, fruits, mushrooms. Farmworker facts like population and geographic distribution in Ontario. 'The majority of full time workers are Portuguese.' Problems faced by farmworkers; low wages; health and safety; living conditions; child labour; discrimination; Isolation. One of a series of four booklets. Photography by Carole Conde and Karl Beveridge. Produced between Fall 1982 and March 1983.

Told in the voice of a farmworker who relates the miserable working conditions and poverty wages with very few labour law rights. Issues around pesticide exposure. Knowing your rights: What to do if hurt; employment standards; protecting your health and safety; what to do if you have been poisoned. One of a series of four booklets. Photography by Carole Conde and Karl Beveridge. Produced between Fall 1982 and March 1983.

Headlines: Off-shore workers; Housing and Living Conditions; Health and Safety; Racism and Discrimination; Social and Cultural Life. One of a series of four booklets. Photography by Carole Conde and Karl Beveridge. Produced between Fall 1982 and March 1983.

A 1973 provincial Ontario task force disclosed that child labour and other forms of exploitation are the norm. What is pregnancy leave and who is entitled to it? One of a series of four booklets. Photography by Carole Conde and Karl Beveridge. Produced between Fall 1982 and March 1983.

An early historical overview of farm workers in BC province, including: from 1820's when First Nations worked farms at colonial outposts; late 1800s when Asian worked farms after the gold rush; up to early 1970s.

BCGEU Community and social action committee anti-poverty project pamphlet.

Rally attended by 600 farmworkers and supporters to protest new Unemployment Insurance 16 week rule required for UI benefits. CFU collected over 8000 signatures against the 16 week rule and presented petition.

Fraser Valley farm worker cabins. Circa 1989.

Fraser Valley farm worker cabins. Circa 1989.

Jasweer Kaur Brar (left) and Jasbir Kaur Sagoo (right), two mushroom pickers who had just joined the union and been fired--on an information picket line outside their worksite. On May 27, 1984 eleven women mushroom pickers were fired at Hoss Farm, five for signing Canadian Farmworkers' Union cards and six more who then approached the Indo-Canadian grower about his actions. Langley/Aldergrove area, British Columbia. May 29, 1984. Photo 11 of 30.

Sakhdarshanpar Machi, Jasbir Kaur Sagoo and Jasweer Kaur Brar (left to right), all new union members on picket duty along the lonely rural road leading to the mushroom farm. At Hoss's mushroom farm the women had had enough of the poor working conditions that were typical for many mushroom workers in the Fraser Valley. This included working up to 15 hours per day with no overtime, being paid at piece rates amounting to $2-$3 an hour (far less than minimum wage), no bathrooms or cleaning…

The fired women brought their children with them to the picket line and for days shouted "Prani picker vipislo" (All pickers back to work!). Langley/Aldergrove area, British Columbia. May 30, 1984. Photo 13 of 30.

After three days of picketing at the remote farm, the women farmworkers set up a secondary picket line at the Fraser Valley Mushroom Growers' Co-operative--which packaged mushrooms under the brand name Money's Mushrooms. The Co-op warehouse workers who processed the mushrooms, members of the Retail & Wholesale Union, refused to cross the picket line. The plant shut down and the distribution and sale of mushrooms in retail stores came to a standstill. The pressure exerted by the picket…

Fraser Valley, BC. Farmworkers cabins. Circa late 1970s.