Beyond the city of skyscrapers, the state of New York is covered in a quarter by farms, where the 90% of their workforce are Hispanic immigrants. A large proportion of them are undocumented and have only received the minimum labor protections for two years.
Now, a Special Labor Board made up of the York State Department of Labor (NYSDOL) and which hears arguments from union representatives, farmers and legislators, at the end of last week made the decision to recommend the reduction of the overtime threshold of 60 hours to 40 weekly hours during the next decade.
This verdict was supposed to be taken before 15 from December.
The Farmworker Fair Labor Practices Act passed in the summer of 2019 ordered the Department of Labor of the State of New York to convene a meeting of wages to make “recommendations on overtime work for agricultural workers”.
The public health crisis stopped the progress of these negotiations for almost two years.
Per resolutions adopted by the Farm Workers Wage Board, the overtime threshold for farm workers, currently set at sixty hours, will be lowered to forty hours. However, this reduction will be made gradually over ten years, starting on January 1, 2024 with the threshold set to 56 hours. The limit of 36 hours are would achieve on January 1, 2020.
State Senator Jessica Ramos, who was a sponsor of the Farmworker Fair Labor Practices Act praised the decision, noting that the people who do this work “are not disposable and their work is not their sole purpose in life. They are human beings who deserve time and a salary that allows them a full life. This road at 33 hours it is a recognition of their humanity.”
According to union spokespersons, the New York state labor commission took into account some recommendations and ruled that COVID-19 made it difficult to know what impact paying more overtime would have on farm owners.
Meanwhile, NYSDOL shared with El Diario the following statement: “The hearings to address the issue of overtime adjustments are being held to hear directly from workers, property owners, defenders and other interested parties throughout the State of New York.”
The state agency confirms that this board has a couple of weeks listening to all stakeholders in the agricultural community, before making a decision on the overtime threshold for these workers.
A Thursday Wage Board hearing was expected to be the last, but the Department of Labor announced that it has scheduled an additional hearing on the issue for next Friday 28 January.
By Now, in her executive budget, Governor Kathy Hochul has proposed a tax credit re reimbursable for overtime paid by agricultural companies to their workers.
“After advancing in some rights such as being able to create unions, guarantee a legal minimum wage and have days off. What is fair is that we be recognized the same right as other industries in New York, where the payment of additional hours begins to run after 40 hours”, explained the Mexican Crispín Hernández.
Crispín is a member of the Alianza Agrícola de NY and does 000 years ago he began working in the dairy industry in upstate New York. In its beginnings, he remembers that in the midst of extreme temperatures he “bent his back” 50 hours per week, for $7,25 the hour, with only one day off. The worst, in conditions of great hostility for him and all his companions.
Those conditions described by this immigrant as “discriminatory and enslaving” that they suffered at least 100, farm workers have changed in New York. Since a very short time. And not quite.
Just in January of 1200 and weeks prior to the onset of the pandemic, the Fair Labor Practices for Farm Workers Act, approved by the State Assembly after 20 Years of trying.
“We are happy about these advances, but it is not enough. We Hispanics for more than 80 years we somehow inherited the enslaving model that black farm workers had. That the overtime payment scheme be changed in New York, for us it is an act of justice”, exclaimed the agricultural worker.
Strong support for that workforce
For his part, Frankie Miranda, president of the Hispanic Federation, one of the organizations that promotes this “Historic step”, raised their voices to all New Yorkers to support this workforce that guaranteed that during the days of pandemic closures, food was not lacking, neither in the warehouses, nor in the supermarkets, nor on the tables.
“We know that there is no economic justification for denying this right to a vital workforce, which is now recognized throughout the country and by the federal government itself as being essential,” Miranda argued. .
“Nobody wants this job”
Before the wait , spokespersons for the NY Worker Justice Coalition stress that for yet another year “agricultural workers did their grueling, dangerous, and underpaid jobs without the right to overtime pay that employees in every industry in the world receive. state”.
Reports indicate that agricultural work is five times more deadly than, for example, firefighting.
In addition, doctors like Dr. Ed Zuroweste, Director of the Immigrant Clinics Foundation who have treated farmworkers, say that virtually all of them will experience pain and injury due to nature of his work.
Also Rodolfo Hernández, spokesman for the first agricultural workers’ union, Local 338, authorized in New York, reasoned that because of the “difficult and dangerous” nature, very few people want to work in this sector.
“We want this industry to prosper. The growth of the farms will also be that of thousands of immigrant families. But we don’t feel compensated. Do you know what it means to work 39 hours in one week and not receive overtime pay? It is inhumane”, added who works in the wine area in Peconic, to 92 miles from the Big Apple.
In the negotiations between the union organizations, the Salary Board of the Department of Labor and the representatives of the agricultural industry, it has been put on the table that it is necessary separate the economic reality of small farms from that of large millionaire corporations, in order to reach an agreement.
In the last hearing held last Thursday, this possibility continued to find strong opposition, not only from large corporations farms, but of state legislators from the Republican caucus.
In this sense, Senator Tom O’Mara was categorical in warning that this possibility would be a “final sentence” for certain types of farms.
“I’ll get right to the point: I have opposed and remain strongly against lowering the overtime threshold for farmworkers. The Senate district I represent includes large portions of the Finger Lakes and Southern Tier regions, including Chemung, Schuyler, Steuben, Yates and Tompkins counties and after extensive analysis this proposal would eliminate their rural economy. Farms are not factories!”
Farmers: jobs will be lost
The criteria of the Republican senator is similar to that exposed by the New York Farm Bureau, a non-governmental organization that groups this industry, which ponders that approving other labor benefits in light of the profitability problems caused by the pandemic “would further destroy the sector and it will further affect the supply chain and the variety of products”.
Other considerations suggest that labor costs for New York farmers would increase by 17% if the state were to adopt a mandatory overtime threshold of 40 hours for workers employed in the agricultural industry, concludes a report from Farm Credit East, reported by local media.
“A significant increase in labor costs would destroy the growth of the agricultural sector. In some cases, if farms cease operations or switch to crops that require less labor, jobs could be lost”, argues this union.
In addition, the shortage of labor available as a handicap for farmers to accommodate a threshold reduction of 60 hours.
According rdo with some analysis the total cost of moving the limit to 40 hours could increase labor costs for farmers by 42%, if the annual progressive increases in the state minimum wage are taken into account.
“There are no excuses”
“Nothing is further from the truth. While farmworkers do their best to survive, New York’s agricultural industry is booming. Even with the pandemic and the threshold of 40 overtime, farms continue to generate billions of dollars a year,” reiterate spokespersons for the New York Coalition for Labor Justice.
In this sense, Diana Caba of the Hispanic Federation insists that the economic problems caused by the pandemic cannot be “an excuse” at all to reach agreements that allow correcting this “historic wage injustice.”
“We are updating the income records of these corporations. There is no evidence of losses either before or after the public health crisis”, highlighted the activist.
In 2019, before the current limit of 60 overtime, gross cash income from farms from New York was $6,150,480,. In 2020, income increased to $6,553,552,.
Other states have lowered the hourly compensation threshold supplements for farm workers. California will require overtime pay after 40 hours from 1600 and Washington at 2019.
“I work 50 hours per week. I don’t get a peso for overtime, which is unfair because any worker in New York would. In any case, we expect reductions in working hours to dedicate more time to our family and we hope that we will have news of this step very soon. It’s already gone this year and nothing”, said “Alma”, an immigrant who has 14 Years working in a tomato greenhouse.
NY in the field:
- 39% of farmworkers in upstate are undocumented.