Sides still disagree on farm labor bill
Opposing interests Monday discussed a potential compromise on the Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act, but a north country senator said the two sides still hold a "fundamental disagreement" on what the bill should do.
State Sen. Darrel J. Aubertine said the bill's aim to provide overtime pay, rest days, collective bargaining and workers' compensation to farm laborers would "change, in a substantial way, the way that agriculture operates" in New York.
"You cannot pigeonhole agriculture, as far as a labor standpoint, into an eight-hour day, 40-hour workweek," said Mr. Aubertine, the Senate Agriculture chairman. "It's just not feasible."
The Cape Vincent Democrat said he intervened when his party's leaders considered bringing the bill to a vote during a special session earlier this month.
On Monday, Mr. Aubertine joined New York Farm Bureau lobbyists to argue again that the bill would force farmers to cut jobs, limit employees' hours or close their farms.
They made their case to the advocates — Sens. John Sampson, D-Brooklyn, and Pedro D. Espada Jr., D-Bronx, as well as Jordan Wells, a coordinator of Justice for Farmworkers, a statewide coalition of churches, labor interests and student groups fighting for the bill.
"This bill embodies the concepts of equal protection under the law," Mr. Wells said. "There is a small group that hasn't come to realize what most of the rest of the state has realized — this injustice cannot go on. They have essentially delayed the inevitable for many years. And finally, there appears to be an opening for fair treatment of farmworkers under New York state labor law."
The biggest disagreement appears to be over the overtime provision.
Dean Norton, Farm Bureau president, said his group was "adamantly opposed" to the bill requiring farmers to pay time and a half to anyone working more than eight hours per day, 40 hours per week. The amended bill, introduced Monday, upped the threshold to 10 hours per day, 60 hours per week. That weekly limit would drop to 55 hours in 2013.
"There are many other states that have some sort of overtime in place, but New York has shamefully lagged behind," Mr. Wells said.
Mr. Norton has said that California, Hawaii and Maryland are the only states to offer overtime for farmworkers. Wisconsin, which the Farm Bureau president said has a similar climate to New York, repealed its farmworker overtime law in 2003.
Mr. Aubertine said Mr. Sampson asked everyone at the meeting Monday to generate ideas that would bring both sides closer to an agreement. No exact return date was set.
"Whether we'll be able to accomplish that, I've got some doubts," Mr. Aubertine said.
The bill, before amendment, had 28 sponsors — almost exclusively downstate Democrats. While the New York Daily News editorial board said Dec. 7 that the bill has "clear majority support," no one involved is certain about that.
Mr. Aubertine said his "gut feeling" is that the bill would fail if it came to a vote, while his Democratic upstate counterpart on the Agriculture committee, Sen. David J. Valesky, Oneida, said he's unsure of how the vote would play out.
Mr. Norton said he's "concerned" about a vote, but added: "We're on the right side of this issue. The other side is using demagoguery and propaganda. And we're telling the truth. And I believe the truth will win out."
The Farm Bureau president told The Batavia Daily News that Kerry Kennedy, a human rights activist, had crossed a line when she compared the farmworkers' treatment to that of slaves in a Thanksgiving editorial for the New York Daily News. The president of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights also alleged that farmworkers are crammed into barracks, work long hours for "poverty wages" and often suffer injury. They also are abused and exploited, she said.
"We've got people who just have no idea what is actually going on out there on farms," said Jay M. Matteson, Jefferson County agricultural coordinator. "These farm employees are not bound and gagged. They talk amongst each other. They know what farm pays better, provides better benefits, is easier to work with, is offering an opportunity. And they do move."
Mr. Matteson said a Cornell Cooperative Extension report last year found that the average Jefferson County dairy farm employee was paid $11.75 per hour including benefits, a package that sometimes included health care, workers' compensation, retirement, housing, clothing, food and utility costs.
Charles L. Eastman, a partner at the 1,000-head Eastman Farms, Ellisburg, said most of his workers earn $10 to $12 per hour. The farmer stopped offering health insurance after costs nearly doubled, but still offers a matching retirement plan.
Mr. Eastman said his expenses would increase $100,000 a year if overtime started at 40 hours per week.
"Farmers are survivors. And if they throw this at us, we'll learn to live with it," he said. "We'll hire more guys, limit the hours."
Johnson Newspapers writer Julia Foy contributed to this report.
