The Okanagan's most dependable workers arrive for another season

It was a busy afternoon at Kelowna International Airport on Wednesday as 178 mothers, fathers, grandpas and grandmas touched down to begin work in the agriculture sector.

Much like those who travel from B.C. to Alberta for work, these workers came from Mexico to pick cherries all over the Okanagan and earn a better wage than they would receive at home. These workers may surprise you as they are not young bucks looking to make a quick buck for a summer, but rather an older generation who return year after year to fill the jobs British Columbians won’t do.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, roughly 300 workers arrived after taking direct flights from Mexico to Kelowna.

They landed weary and tired but eager to see familiar faces and return to the community they have called home for the past few years. Once they cleared customs, the workers were surprised with a welcome reception from RAMA, Radical Action with Migrants in Agriculture.

Rama means "branch" in Spanish.

The group of volunteers works to ensure that migrant farmworkers in the Okanagan Valley are treated with dignity, humanity and community. And that is exactly what they saw when they came face-to-face with the members who were waiting with signs, smiles, and warms hugs of welcome.

“Oh my God, what a beautiful reception party,” one worker said as they were handed flowers.

RAMA volunteer Elise Hjalmarson said it was important to let the workers know that the community welcomes them and acknowledge what they do.

“So many of them feel like no one knows they are here, nobody knows that they are involved in the agriculture sector in B.C. and they are the ones that are picking our cherries,” Hjalmarson explained. “They are the ones getting up at five in the morning with their apple sacks to do the work that most Canadians don’t want to do.”

Hjalmarson said RAMA wanted to send a clear message to let the workers know that they know they are here and that they had to leave their families back home to work, but they are not alone in Canada.

The notion that a picker comes from Mexico once, stealing Canadian jobs, is simply not true. These people are members of the community as they return year after year to earn a living, support their families, and send their children to university.

Just like Kelowna residents who travel to Fort McMurray and northern Alberta for work.

“The agricultural sector in B.C. depends on the labour of farm workers that come from Latin America and the Carribean, not because there are not enough people in B.C., but because Canadians don’t want to do this work. It’s difficult, it’s undependable, it’s hazardous, it’s one of the most dangerous sectors in Canada to work in. We really depend on the labour of people willing to come and do this work.”

Many of the faces that came off of the redeye flight were familiar ones to Hjalmarson as they have been working in the region for years.

“I met a gentleman yesterday who had been coming to Canada for years, this was his 10th season. We think of them of temporary, but the workers that come to B.C. are not temporary. They are far more permanent, some have been coming for years, some for decades. Some are here for more months than they are back at home with their families.”

RAMA is hoping to see a shift in mentality in B.C. when it comes to foreign workers. Without these workers, the Okanagan simply would not be able to harvest the hundreds of thousands of pounds of fruit each year. It would rot on trees and the industry would disappear. Unless of course Canadians decide to do the dangerous and hazardous work.

Six RAMA members and supporters greeted the nearly 200 workers, a small group by most standards but highly impactful on these people arriving in the community.

These workers headed to Coral Beach Farms in Lake Country, one of the largest cherry farms in the region. The cherry picking season at this farm is expected to start on the weekend.