The union now representing migrant farms workers is applauding a Manitoba Labour Board decision Tuesday that certified it at a Manitoba farm — but farm groups and many of the newly unionized workers themselves are raising concerns about the implications of the decision.

A group of migrant farm workers at Mayfair Farms, a fruit and vegetable operation in Portage la Prairie, Man., became the first unionized group of foreign farm workers in Canada following a Manitoba Labour Board decision released Tuesday.

"I think it's an important day because it recognized the rights of the migrant agricultural workers," said Robert Ziegler, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 832 in Manitoba.

"For some people this will be a momentous moment of trying to get their rights, address their issues."

But farm groups worry that unionized employees will mean higher costs and lower profits.

"Can the farms afford anything? No. Unless you as a consumer want to start paying 10 to 15 per cent more tomorrow morning for your food, then the farm cannot afford to start to pay more," said Doug Connery, a farmer and labour representative for the Vegetable Growers Association of Manitoba.

A lawyer representing Mayfair Farms, Grant Mitchell, said his clients have not yet decided if they will pursue the matter through the courts. Mayfair Farms has seven days to seek a review of the decision.

Meanwhile, many of the workers at the now-unionized farm say they never would have signed the union cards if they had understood what they were signing.

"We don't want the union here. Everybody sign one paper, but nobody have idea [of] what is union," said Heladio Martinez, one of the workers.

"We looking for hours. We looking for good place. We have pretty good bosses here. We don't need overtime, because if we want to work more hours, it's easy to get here."

The UFCW applied for certification at Mayfair Farms in September 2006, saying it had signed up more than 65 per cent of the farm's 59 workers, which under Manitoba law entitles the group to automatic union certification.

A month later, 43 of the workers signed statements saying they had been misled by the union and did not want to join. But the labour board was not swayed by their objections, calling them "untimely" and saying they "did not allege misconduct."

The workers can apply to decertify their local, but only after their first collective agreement has been in place for one year.

Martinez and his bosses worry Mayfair Farms won't be in business that long.