The Farm Laborers Fair Practices Act that passed the State Senate on Wednesday could result in fewer locally-grown foods across New York and more part-time farm workers.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo had promised to sign the bill after the Democrat-controlled Assembly and Senate approved it this session.
Under the bill, farmworkers would have the right to unionize, but not strike; receive overtime after 60 hours and be entitled to a 24-hour day of rest each week. Workers could waive the day of rest in return for time-and-a-half for that day they worked. Also, a rain day would count toward the day of rest.
Nathan Blesy, an Ashford dairy farmer and president of the Cattaraugus County Farm Bureau, said Thursday, “It is going to cost you a lot more to eat local food if there will be anyone left growing it. Food will come from farther away. Fruit and vegetable farmers will be in a pinch.”
Blesy said sponsors of the farmworkers bill “don’t know where food comes from.” Farmers have narrow windows to plant, tend and harvest crops. That often means long hours.
“When you take a job on a farm, you know what you are getting into,” Blesy said. “It’s not going to help farm employees.”
Instead of paying overtime, farmers will be like Walmart and Lowe’s with more part-time employees, he said. “They will hire extra employees instead of paying overtime. There will be more people living at the poverty level.”
Assemblyman Joe Giglio, R-Gowanda, voted against the measure.
“Our family farms already struggle with normal small business operating expenses, and challenges with weather and marketplace competition,” Giglio said. “The addition of mandates that are unworkable in a farming environment will destroy this already-struggling industry.”
The assemblyman said agriculture in New York is a $4.8 billion industry, with more than 35,000 farms across the state.
“The very survival of agriculture in New York is now at risk with the passage of this bill, which threatens the livelihood of thousands of farm families and the jobs of the farm workers it allegedly protects,” Giglio said.
Blesy said the 60-hour work week for farm laborers will be reviewed by a six-member wage board and make recommendations in late 2020.
“It will probably be pushed back from 60 hours,” he said.
Blesy said the changes would not affect his family farm. “We’ve got robots to do all the milking,” he said. “The rest is family labor. It won’t affect me, but it will affect your grocery bill.”
Food chains will get the cheapest produce and farmers markets where the produce is local generally cost a little more, Blesy said. “Most of your stuff is going to come from out-of-state” where it can be grown at less cost.
Blesy doesn’t see any way the Farm Laborers Fair Practices Act will do anything except hurt farmers already hurt by low commodity prices.
The New York State Farm Bureau put out a statement on Wednesday after the Senate bill passed along party lines:
“At this time we believe it is in the best interest of all parties to continue working together to address these flaws (in the law) and move forward with legislation that farmers, farmworkers and the labor community can mutually embrace.”
The bill, if signed by the governor, could cost farmers $300 million in the first year. It would go into effect next year.
Dustin Bliss, a town of Freedom dairy farmer who has several farm workers on his 1,600-acre farm, where they milk 500 cows, said in April when the act was first being debated that it would have a negative impact on farmers.
Bliss said then that the farm labor bill “will be another weight piling on top of our already heavy load.”
He blames labor unions for the Farm Laborers Fair Labor Practices Act.
“This has nothing to do with farm labor,” Bliss said. “They care nothing about farm labor. It is another way for organized labor to increase their influence in Albany.”
(Contact reporter Rick Miller at rmiller@oleantimesherald.com. Follow him on Twitter, @RMillerOTH)
