Bill seen as threat to family farms

The proposed Farm Workers Fair Labor Practices Act, if passed by the state Legislature, would force farmers to cut jobs, limit employees' hours or close their farms, according to almost all who testified Thursday at a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing in Watertown.

The bill aims to provide overtime pay, mandatory rest days, collective bargaining and workers' compensation to those who work on farms statewide.

But Dean Norton, New York Farm Bureau president, said those protections, while appropriate in other industries, shouldn't be as easily applied to agriculture.

"Farming is simply not a nine-to-five, and making food is not like making widgets," he told Sen. Darrel J. Aubertine, D-Cape Vincent, who hosted the meeting at Jefferson Community College.

Thomas R. Maloney, a senior extension associate in Cornell University's applied economics and management department, said work schedules are often dictated by weather or animal needs. He said if the bill was passed, farmers would limit each employees' hours to avoid overtime costs.

Paul Baker, the state Horticultural Association executive director, said the bill would cause farmers to choose crops that could be harvested by machines to avoid increasing labor costs. He echoed Mr. Maloney's opinion that employees would earn less if the bill were passed because farmers would limit their hours to avoid paying overtime.

Mr. Baker also said some farmers may seek new locations out of state to farm.

"I do not want to see New York state put us in a position where we're less competitive," he said.

The bill passed the state Assembly in June. Senate Majority Leader Pedro D. Espada Jr. had pushed for the bill to be on the Senate's Sept. 10 agenda, but a vote never materialized. The Bronx senator told the New York Daily News earlier this month that he wanted the bill to be part of a "civil rights" package that included a same-sex marriage bill.

Jay M. Matteson, Jefferson County agricultural coordinator, said the farm workers act threatens the $400 million dairy farm industry here. That industry provides jobs that, on average, pay $11.75 per hour including benefits.

Both Mr. Matteson and Mr. Maloney said the bill, in several instances, offers protections that would be unnecessary because of existing laws.

Mr. Norton said the bill's collective bargaining provision would give workers the power to strike during peak harvesting times, which "will simply end the family farm."

"Adding this bill to the mix simply does not make sense to the farmers or the farm workers," he said.

The hearing was intended to be the culmination of a statewide tour by Mr. Aubertine, the Senate Agriculture Committee chairman, to learn about farm issues. But special sessions in Albany forced the Cape Vincent Democrat to postpone two discussions, including a Nov. 10 roundtable in Waddington, until after Thursday's hearing. The St. Lawrence County stop will now be held from 2 to 4 p.m. Monday in Waddington Village Hall, 46 Maple St.

Agriculture officials called Thursday for state action that would decrease dairy farmers' production costs or increase payments for milk. They also lobbied for tax credits, investments in infrastructure that collect and transmit power, and for foreign dairy products to be held to the same standard as products made here if sold in New York.

Bryan Gotham, a Hammond farmer, said farmers needed to recognize that imported milk protein concentrates were having a negative effect on milk prices and supply.

Mr. Matteson thanked Mr. Aubertine for convincing the New York Power Authority to take $10 million from the sale of energy unused by Alcoa to pay 10 percent of north country businesses' power bills for the next year.

The agricultural coordinator estimated that Franklin, Jefferson and St. Lawrence counties' dairy farms would save $938,000 because of the senator's work.

"If there's a way you can make it permanent, we'd certainly appreciate that," Mr. Matteson said.