[URBAN NOTE] Two links on the Ontario Food Terminal and the problems of the Tibetans who work there
The Ontario Food Terminal, Toronto's main produce distribution centre, was the subject of two articles coming up on my Feedly RSS feed recently.
The first, Torontoist's "How the Ontario Food Terminal Works", written by Conrad Smyth with photos by Robert Ewart, takes a look at the bargaining that goes on here as buyers contend with sellers.
The OFT runs two distinct operations: a farmers’ market, where exclusively local growers hock their produce, and a warehouse market offering imported fruits and vegetables from around the world. Only legally registered businesses can buy and must pay a nominal fee for use of the facility. Sellers are charged rent by the OFT, with famers’ market access wide open and available by the day, and warehouse market tenants locked into long-term leases currently holding a robust zero per cent vacancy rate.
Prices at the OFT are informally set to a daily price list made available by the U.S. Department of Agriculture; they fluctuate based on customer demand and vendor supply, with factors as seemingly innocuous as a Loblaws’ flyer promotion depleting inventory levels and pushing up the going wholesale rate. Each vendor issues a single weekly invoice for all purchasing activity, with payment due to the OFT. Once received, the money is doled out accordingly, allowing sales floor deals to be struck in quick succession without concern for the cumbersome exchange of physical cash.
[Bondi Produce]does the bulk of its business with grocery stores and restaurants-the former favouring a sharp cost and commanding a lower per-case purchasing price in exchange for a much higher sales volume, and the latter emphasizing quality and paying a higher per-case price due to the comparatively small size of their orders. Exact numbers are kept close to the chest, though gross margins tends to blend out at about 15 per cent, depending on what is being bought and sold-a $17 purchase is resold for $20, generating $3 of gross profit, and putting the volume necessary to run a financially sustainable business into mind-boggling focus.
The second, NOW Toronto's "Tibetan immigrants fight for fair wages and dignity at the Ontario Food Terminal", written by Gelek Badheytsang, takes a look at an ongoing labour dispute. Apparently many of the workers at the Ontario Food Terminal are of Tibetan background, residents of the heavily Tibetan neighbourhood of Parkdale just east of the Terminal on the Queensway. Apparently working conditions--something touched on obliquely by Smyth's article--are not the best.
Stop and consider the salad in your sandwich, the berry in your smoothie or the saag in your paneer. If you didn’t grow that piece of leafy green yourself, or buy it directly from a farmer at your local farmer’s market, chances are it would’ve been handled by a line of workers employed at the Ontario Food Terminal.
Until recently, Thupten Nyendak could’ve been one of them. He worked full-time for Fresh Taste Produce, one of the distribution companies (called “warehouse tenants”) at the Ontario Food Terminal. Since April 21, Nyendak and 13 of his colleagues have been on strike, protesting low wages, lack of job benefits and workplace harassment. They have been bargaining for a first contract since November.
[. . .]
Before they joined the Teamsters back in October, Nyendak says Fresh Taste workers who complained about being shortchanged on hours worked or requested a pay raise would be told by management "to walk. There are many other Tibetans like you outside, they’d tell us," says Nyendak.
Because he was one of the more vocal employees, Nyendak says he tolerated less of this kind of treatment, letting management know whenever they crossed the line. His confident personality is one of the reasons his colleagues appointed him union steward.
Then there is Zaheed Shamshadeen. Originally from Guyana, he is one of the three non-Tibetans among striking workers at Fresh Taste. He has been an employee at Fresh Taste for 18 years, starting at $12 an hour. He has been earning $14.50 an hour for the last eight years.
“They treat me like shit,” says Shamshadeen, who is reluctant to speak at first. Nyendak encourages him. “Zaheed, tell them how they bully you.”
“They call me names,” Shamshadeen says. He looks downcast.
The first, Torontoist's "How the Ontario Food Terminal Works", written by Conrad Smyth with photos by Robert Ewart, takes a look at the bargaining that goes on here as buyers contend with sellers.
The OFT runs two distinct operations: a farmers’ market, where exclusively local growers hock their produce, and a warehouse market offering imported fruits and vegetables from around the world. Only legally registered businesses can buy and must pay a nominal fee for use of the facility. Sellers are charged rent by the OFT, with famers’ market access wide open and available by the day, and warehouse market tenants locked into long-term leases currently holding a robust zero per cent vacancy rate.
Prices at the OFT are informally set to a daily price list made available by the U.S. Department of Agriculture; they fluctuate based on customer demand and vendor supply, with factors as seemingly innocuous as a Loblaws’ flyer promotion depleting inventory levels and pushing up the going wholesale rate. Each vendor issues a single weekly invoice for all purchasing activity, with payment due to the OFT. Once received, the money is doled out accordingly, allowing sales floor deals to be struck in quick succession without concern for the cumbersome exchange of physical cash.
[Bondi Produce]does the bulk of its business with grocery stores and restaurants-the former favouring a sharp cost and commanding a lower per-case purchasing price in exchange for a much higher sales volume, and the latter emphasizing quality and paying a higher per-case price due to the comparatively small size of their orders. Exact numbers are kept close to the chest, though gross margins tends to blend out at about 15 per cent, depending on what is being bought and sold-a $17 purchase is resold for $20, generating $3 of gross profit, and putting the volume necessary to run a financially sustainable business into mind-boggling focus.
The second, NOW Toronto's "Tibetan immigrants fight for fair wages and dignity at the Ontario Food Terminal", written by Gelek Badheytsang, takes a look at an ongoing labour dispute. Apparently many of the workers at the Ontario Food Terminal are of Tibetan background, residents of the heavily Tibetan neighbourhood of Parkdale just east of the Terminal on the Queensway. Apparently working conditions--something touched on obliquely by Smyth's article--are not the best.
Stop and consider the salad in your sandwich, the berry in your smoothie or the saag in your paneer. If you didn’t grow that piece of leafy green yourself, or buy it directly from a farmer at your local farmer’s market, chances are it would’ve been handled by a line of workers employed at the Ontario Food Terminal.
Until recently, Thupten Nyendak could’ve been one of them. He worked full-time for Fresh Taste Produce, one of the distribution companies (called “warehouse tenants”) at the Ontario Food Terminal. Since April 21, Nyendak and 13 of his colleagues have been on strike, protesting low wages, lack of job benefits and workplace harassment. They have been bargaining for a first contract since November.
[. . .]
Before they joined the Teamsters back in October, Nyendak says Fresh Taste workers who complained about being shortchanged on hours worked or requested a pay raise would be told by management "to walk. There are many other Tibetans like you outside, they’d tell us," says Nyendak.
Because he was one of the more vocal employees, Nyendak says he tolerated less of this kind of treatment, letting management know whenever they crossed the line. His confident personality is one of the reasons his colleagues appointed him union steward.
Then there is Zaheed Shamshadeen. Originally from Guyana, he is one of the three non-Tibetans among striking workers at Fresh Taste. He has been an employee at Fresh Taste for 18 years, starting at $12 an hour. He has been earning $14.50 an hour for the last eight years.
“They treat me like shit,” says Shamshadeen, who is reluctant to speak at first. Nyendak encourages him. “Zaheed, tell them how they bully you.”
“They call me names,” Shamshadeen says. He looks downcast.