Farm labor bill moves closer to Senate vote
Allies for expanding farmworker rights in New York scored a mini-victory Wednesday when the Senate Labor Committee moved the Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act one step closer to a vote. Opponents, including state Sen. Darrel J. Aubertine, were undeterred by the action, promising to continue work to block its passage.
Advocates have made a few changes to last year's bill in an attempt to mollify strong opposing interests, including the New York Farm Bureau.
Peter Gregg, a Farm Bureau spokesman, said changes that have been made to the law to broaden support for it are pointless.
"We don't feel that any bill is necessary or warranted at all," he said. "Any bill that's going to cost our industry as much as this one will is completely out of line. It's destructive to the upstate economy and our entire industry."
Mr. Gregg said last year's version of the bill would have cost farmers statewide a combined $200 million annually. He said his agency is calculating the cost of this amendment.
Supporters have suggested that the new "compromise" bill was reached as a result of two discussions in December and January between them and opponents.
"There's no objective way to characterize these amendments other than moving toward their position," said Jordan Wells, a coordinator for Justice for Farmworkers, a statewide coalition of churches, labor interests and student groups fighting for the bill. "To me, that's a negotiation. They took the gain that they were able to achieve. But they want more and more."
Mr. Wells said Farm Bureau leaders are "stonewalling" in hopes that the bill will go away.
"I'm not sure it mattered how far we came for the Farm Bureau. It probably would never have been good enough," he said.
Mr. Gregg said his group has no intention of negotiating a compromise.
"We're going to keep fighting," he said. "We're counting on Senator Aubertine and Senator Valesky and other upstate Democrats to really stand up for us against their party leadership and try to educate them on the impact that this bill is going to have."
The bill proposes requiring overtime to be paid to any farmhand who works more than 10 hours in a day, or 60 hours in a week. The weekly limit would drop to 55 hours in 2013.
The bill's previous proposal was for overtime to be paid after an eight-hour day or 40-hour week. Farmworkers are not eligible for overtime now.
The new bill also would allow collective bargaining for workers at farms whose gross sales exceeded $650,000, which is 4 percent of all farms statewide. The previous bill proposed that all farms, regardless of income, be required to offer collective bargaining. Farms are not required to offer collective bargaining under current law.
The bill also proposes dropping farmers' obligation to pay unemployment taxes on foreign workers who come to the state for seasonal agricultural work. There were 4,217 people who were given an H-2A visa to perform temporary work on New York farms, according to the most recent federal Department of Labor data, but few are in the north country.
Efforts to further soften the bill, or to keep it from a vote, likely will prove to be challenging. Senate conference leader John Sampson, a Brooklyn Democrat, and Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr., a Bronx Democrat, are both supporters.
Mr. Aubertine vowed Wednesday in a statement to "be sure that every member in the Senate, before voting, has the facts regarding the effect of this bill on our economy, the potentially devastating unintended consequences for farm workers, and the expansive changes it would impose on New York's family farms."
He requested that the bill be referred to the Agriculture Committee, which he chairs, but Labor Committee Chairman George D. Onorato, D-Queens, denied the request in a Wednesday letter.
Mr. Onorato said the Agriculture Committee had no jurisdiction over the legislation because it did not propose amending any part of Agriculture & Markets Law.
He denied a second, identical request by Sen. George D. Maziarz, R-Newfane, during the Wednesday meeting. The amended bill then passed, 13-3, with Sens. Martin Malave Dilan, D-Brookyln, Vincent L. Leibell, R-Patterson, and Roy J. McDonald, R-Wilton, opposed.
Four voted "aye without recommendation," which allows a legislator to help a bill get to the next committee without supporting it. Those were Sens. William Stachowski, D-Buffalo; James S. Alesi, R-Perinton; Charles J. Fuschillo Jr., R-Merrick, and Thomas P. Morahan, R-New City.
Mr. Fuschillo was a sponsor of a previous version of this bill.
Mr. McDonald said the bill offered "a great opportunity," but should be done in conjunction with a "rural recovery plan" that he has proposed, which assists volunteer emergency and fire service members, rural health care providers and educators.
The bill now moves to the Codes Committee, which is chaired by Sen. Eric T. Schneiderman, D-Manhattan.
