The fair fields of New York
Albany Times Union, First published in print: Tuesday, June 16, 2009

The very day that the state Senate plunged into an epic power struggle, the Assembly passed a bill that would help some of the least powerful among us.

Like every other piece of legislation, the Farmworkers Omnibus Labor Standards Bill now stands stalled amid the Senate's week-long inaction.

When our part-time senators are done sparring over who leads the chamber and who decides things such as how tens of millions of dollars in pork barrel funds are carved up, perhaps they can make it one of their first orders of business to afford some basic labor rights to the people who help grow and harvest our food.

The bill would set an eight-hour day for agricultural workers and require farms to pay overtime for hours that exceed the limit. It would also give employees one day of rest a week during harvest season, allow them to form unions and entitle them to workers' compensation and unemployment benefits. Farms that hire five or more migrant workers would have to follow some basic health regulations covering the conditions in which their laborers live and work.

We appreciate that some farmers are worried that this bill will hurt farms, particularly smaller ones, by raising the cost of growing food in New York. They fear they may lose their ability to compete with farms in other states that lack such laws.

But we have heard such arguments on other work force issues, such as minimum wage. New York cannot let such speculative arguments justify underpaying and overworking people and denying them at least a day of rest. We share the view of many advocates that the perceived harms are being greatly overstated, and that the industry and the consumer will absorb the costs as they have in other states such as California.

Among the warnings from opponents, for example, is that produce will rot in the fields if workers leave it unharvested for a day. Nothing in the bill, however, requires all workers to have the same day off or prevents a farm from staggering employee schedules to insure seven-day coverage without incurring overtime.

Such minimum standards, to be sure, have been under assault for years. The last time the minimum wage was high enough to keep a person who worked 40 hours a week out of poverty was the early 1980s. Early in this decade, some Republicans, feeling empowered by full control of Congress and the White House, sought to push for a 50-hour work week before overtime kicked in.

It is troubling enough at any time to have lawmakers debate whether only some people should have the same protections from what amounts to exploitation, intentional or not, as others.

To have this discussion in 2009 -- 71 years after the federal Fair Labor Standards Act established a minimum wage and a 40-hour work week for most employees -- shows us, unfortunately, how far we have not come.

THE ISSUE: A bill to afford farm workers some basic rights stalls.

THE STAKES: Seven decades after the 40-hour week was born, some workers still toil without such protections.

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Last Updated:06/16/2009
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