“Fortis Et Liber” Unless You Are a Farm Worker

Abstract

Precarious employment entails both a heightened risk of injury and a greater likelihood of exclusion from statutory injury-compensation schemes. The contrasting cases of workers’ compensation entitlements among firefighters and farm workers in the anti-union Canadian province of Alberta provide a preliminary insight into how issue framing can be used to gain mandatory workers’ compensation coverage for workers. In addition to careful and timely critiques of legislator justifications, farm-worker advocates may be able to (a) generate shared framings among farm workers and farmers by creating a credible liability threat, (b) leverage preferential workers’ compensation access accorded to noncitizens into policy change, (c) challenge the constitutionality of the exclusion, and (d) trigger a framing process among farm workers via social media to increase pressure on legislators. These strategies offer a way to undermine the interlocking interests of farmers, politicians, and agribusiness that constrain efforts to achieve broad statutory inclusion of farm workers and achieve greater access to workers’ compensation benefits for them.