Mar 8, 2010New York Debates Farm Labor Bill — Again
A controversial farm labor bill remains stalled in the New York State Senate, and it’s anyone’s guess whether or not it will pass.
New York’s farmers certainly hope it doesn’t. Hundreds of them rallied at the state capital March 1 to protest – among other things – the labor legislation, which they say will put many of them out of business. Their slogan was Don’t plow us under!”
If passed, the bill (S2247B) would give farm workers rights to overtime pay, a full day off every week, freedom to form unions and other benefits. While that all sounds good on the surface, the growers and others who oppose the bill say the added costs would harm to New York agriculture – and that the state already has worker protections in place.
“It will irreparably damage our family farms’ ability to produce local food for local New Yorkers,” said Dean Norton, president of New York Farm Bureau (NYFB).
Norton testified at a hearing of the Senate Agriculture Committee the same day the rally was held, a forum that finally allowed opponents of the labor legislation to air their concerns in public, said Julie Suarez, director of NYFB’s public policy division.
The committee hearing went well, from the perspective of the bill’s opponents. It was fairly evident that the people testifying in favor of the bill had no real knowledge of how agriculture works. Some of the accusations from advocacy groups, that farm workers in New York were enslaved, assaulted and generally mistreated, were “really nasty” and far from the truth, Suarez said.
Agriculture is not like other industries. Growers have only a short, intense period of time to harvest their crops, and workers bank a lot of hours because of that. Paying them overtime just isn’t feasible. If growers were forced to do that, many of them wouldn’t hire workers at all, according to the bill’s opponents.
In a press release, NYFB laid out some statistics:
New York has lost 615 farms due to record low milk prices over the past three years. Fruit and vegetable farms, which are also struggling with low commodity prices and staggeringly high costs, would also be challenged to survive under the burdens of the new legislation.
New York already ranks second in the nation for agricultural labor expenses. For every $100 in food produced, New York farmers pay $13.82 to farm workers on average, compared to the national average of $8.88.
20,305 New York farms out of a total of 36,352 had losses in 2007.
The decline in state farms that hire workers over the past 10 years is nearly 20 percent, without even weighing the added mandates from the farm worker bill.
The same labor bill failed to pass the state Senate last year. It looked like it was on its way to passing earlier this year, before state Sen. Darrel Aubertine, chairman of the agriculture committee, diverted the bill into his committee for further review.
So, what will happen next?
It’s hard to say, Suarez said. It’s an election year, and there are several weeks left in New York’s legislative calendar. No one can make an accurate prediction.
She was certain of one thing, however. Farmers in other states need to pay attention to what’s going on in New York. Their state could be next.
— Matt Milkovich ”
