Farmers Rally in Albany, Protest Labor Bill

Farmworker Omnibus Bill Would Cost Farmers $200 Million Annually

ALBANY, N.Y. — Local farm families rallied at the State Capitol last Friday, protesting a pending $200 million labor bill that would be a critical blow to the upstate rural economy and Long Island farm towns.

The Farmworker Omnibus Bill will cause fundamental changes to New York agriculture, forcing local farms to become more like factories in order to absorb the added costs of the bill. No other states have such comprehensive labor mandates for agricultural workers, as there are significant federal laws that regulate the migrant labor stream and provide Fair Labor Standards for agricultural employment for all farm workers.

In addition to the overtime provision, which completely ignores the seasonal aspect of farming, the bill also makes mandatory the payment of unemployment insurance for small farm employers, even for seasonal workers who cannot collect.

It also requires disability insurance for injuries off the job, and collective bargaining and union organizing. No other state, except California with its much larger farms and its year-round agriculture, has such a comprehensive unfunded labor mandate on their farm families.

The bill comes as the costs of doing business in New York skyrocket, with increased taxes and fees slamming farmers during the worst recession in decades.

Local apple farmer, Peter Ten Eyck of Indian Ladder Farms, said, “My farm produces local food for local families, in a very expensive, high-cost state. I have work agreements with my workers that disclose pay rates, housing provisions and the terms and conditions of employment.”

“Time and a half would add significant costs to my annual payroll, wiping out any type of profit margin on my agricultural sales. The only way for me to adjust is to tell my workers that they can’t work as many hours as they need to support their own families. If I cut their pay, the workers who have been with me for years will go to a different state where they can make more money — leaving the majority of my apples unpicked in the fields.”

Washington County dairy farmer Jay Skellie said, “How do I, as a family farmer who has to milk cows every day, deal with a huge union on my farm?

What do I do with my cows if the corporate unions come onto my farm, organize my workers, and threaten a strike?

“While I can, and do, milk and feed cows side by side with my workers; I can’t do it all by myself. A strike would be impossible to handle.”

“Milking cows isn’t like producing a widget —we’re not talking about the ability to simply shut down an assembly line. We’re dealing with animal health and producing milk for people to drink. If the public cares about local food, we need to wake up and really think about the impact of this bill on New York’s farms — 99 percent of which are family owned, small businesses.”

Local Rensselaer county farmer Dale Riggs said, “I have a small family farm where I grow fresh berries and vegetables for local markets. I hire four employees through the H2a program for a limited period of time. The farm workers I employ are using the wages I pay them during the season to send their kids to school in Guatemala, and purchase land and building supplies for their own farm business back home.”

“If this bill passes, I will reduce the size of my farm operation as I can’t afford to pay $15 an hour for people to pick berries and vegetables. This means my farm employees will not be able to realize their own dream of building a better life for their families, and this is a story that will be repeated on countless farms throughout New York”.

Eric Ooms, a dairy farmer in partnership with his brothers in Columbia County, said, “My family treats all of our workers fairly and with great respect. I personally wake up every morning at 4:00 am to milk cows, so I know first-hand the joys and trials of working at a farm.

“Our family farm employs a few local people full-time, year-round, to help with feeding cows and other chores. Farm employees like myself are smart, intelligent people whose rights and wishes should be respected by all — including by political figures and corporate unions that have never talked to actual farm workers and are just assuming what they want.

“As Vice President of New York Farm Bureau, I can say definitively that this bill will cause all of New York agriculture to adjust, from the dairy farmer who will add cows and go to robotic milking equipment to the fruit farmer who will have to figure out ways to go from fresh market crops that use a lot of labor to crop mixes that use less labor —depriving local consumers of local fresh fruits and vegetables.”

 Source: press release from the New York Farm Bureau