BY SYLVIE CHARBIN AND MARIA ISABEL LEBLANC
FOREST, Ontario - The first time Militant supporters met
Garry Gilliard was at a December 1 rally of 1,000 people,
most of them hog farmers, in front of Queen's Park, the
Ontario legislature. Farmers went there to demand immediate
income assistance from the provincial and federal governments
as a result of a worldwide collapse in farm prices over the
last year.
On January 23 these reporters spent about four hours at Gilliard's farm, 180 miles west of Toronto. His wife Jackie and his brother John also sat in on part of the discussion. As well as raising 3,000 hogs and 140 sows, Garry, who is 38, and his two brothers plant 1,800 acres of corn, soy beans, and alfalfa, under contract from a seed company. Aside from hiring a couple of part-time workers in the spring and fall, they do all the work.
Garry said the annual operating costs of the farm come to about Can$1.4 million (Can$1=US$0.65), which include about $100,000 in interest payments. The three brothers net less than $15,000 per year each after expenses. "Just to break even with the hogs," Gilliard said, "we have to get $1.20 per kilogram." In 1998 hog prices fell as low as 34 cents per kilogram. "We don't know where we'll be this time next year, or even if we'll still be hog farmers," he added. Showing us a copy of a local real estate magazine with farm listings, Gilliard explained that many farms in the area are for sale, but that few people are buying. He added more than half the farmers take other jobs to survive, a number that is increasing every day.
Although Garry and his brothers are contracted with Maple Leaf Foods, which guarantees they'll have a place to bring their hogs for processing, the contract doesn't guarantee fair price. Last year meatpackers on strike against Maple Leaf were forced back to work with a 40 percent wage cut. This settlement paved the way for more concessions from other workers in the meatpacking industry, like the 800 workers at Quality Meat, who struck against a similar wage cuts December 7 (see article on page 3). Meanwhile the prices farmers receive for their livestock remains below the break-even level.
Garry and his brother John were familiar with the Maple Leaf strike, and we spent some time discussing the stakes in the strike against Quality Meat as well as the difficult working conditions that exist in meatpacking plants. They agreed that packing bosses were making a lot of money by putting the squeeze on both the hog farmers and the packinghouse workers.
We asked Garry what he thought should be done to aid hog farmers. "Farmers have to stick together more than they do now," he answered. "There should have been even more of us at Queen's Park in December." He added that Ontario farmers needed an income stabilization fund like the one farmers contribute to in Quebec. This program provides subsidies to farmers when hog prices fall below costs of production, although as a result of this year's crisis, this fund has been virtually depleted.
Sylvie Charbin is a member of Local Lodge 2113 of the International Association of Machinists.