https://www.timesunion.com/business/article/Farm-workers-push-for-labor-rights-bill-at-Capitol-12916260.php
Farm workers push for labor rights bill at Capitol
Updated 4:35 pm, Tuesday, May 15, 2018
Albany
"Time's up!"
"The time is now!"
The cries rang out at the Capitol on Tuesday, as dozens of farm workers gathered on the steps of the Million Dollar Staircase to push for legislation that would grant them a day off every week, overtime pay, the opportunity to bargain collectively and other labor rights.
Politicians and representatives from the New York Civil Liberties Union, New York State United Teachers, the Hispanic Federation and other organizations spoke at the rally in support of the Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act. The legislation — referred to the state Senate's Agriculture Committee in February — would also ensure farm workers can't work more than eight hours in a day or 40 hours a week and require supervisors to report injuries to employers, provide forms for workers' compensation claims and ensure that labor camps meet certain standards.
"We need dignity and justice for farmworkers," said Sen. Marisol Alcantara, D-Manhattan, the bill's sponsor. "We came here to work and we want justice."
Mónica Ramírez, the daughter and granddaughter of migrant farm workers, said the failure to provide farm workers with basic rights puts them at risk of exploitation. The #MeToo movement that has spread from industry to industry needs to extend to these workers, some of whom have suffered sexual harassment, she said.
"A movement was sparked," said Ramírez, co-founder and president of Alianza Nacional de Campesinas. "The time is up."
Many farm workers are paid poorly and live in substandard housing, said Taina Asili, who is on the board of directors at Soul Fire Farm in Grafton. She demanded the creation of a system where workers are paid fairly and given equal rights.
"Human rights are non-negotiable," she said.
New York's farm workers have been excluded from many legal protections in federal law for about 80 years, and proposals to extend bargaining and other rights have routinely died in the Legislature in the past.
In January, State Supreme Court Justice Richard McNally dismissed a lawsuit from the NYCLU and two other advocacy groups that sought to give farm workers collective bargaining rights. The suit argued that protections were needed for farm workers who were often foreign-born, not fluent in English and dependent on their employers for housing and other needs, and that their exclusion was racially motivated.
The state Farm Bureau and others in the agriculture industry opposed the lawsuit on the grounds that it would create financial difficulties for farmers who must contend with unpredictable conditions, and that there was no racial aspect to the the legal status of farm workers. The Farm Bureau stepped in after Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration decided not the defend the state against the lawsuit.
McNally ruled that the state and NYCLU had "not demonstrated that the Labor Law statutes are racially discriminatory or that farm workers are a suspect class entitled to constitutional protections."
miszler@timesunion.com • 518-454-5018 • @madisoniszler
