Our Perspective
Headline
A Historic Win
for New York
Farm Workers
By Stuart Appelbaum, President
Retail, Wholesale and Department
Store Union, UFCW
Twitter: @sappelbaum
For far too long, farm workers in New York have
been subject to discrimination, abuse, and
exploitation. They have reported enduring 70-
hour, seven-day work weeks without overtime pay.
They toil in extreme heat in the summer months, but are cruelly denied
adequate bathroom breaks or enough access to water. Farm workers often
are forced to venture into the fields in seek of relief, where they are
subjected to exposure to ticks and potentially hazardous chemicals. For
female farm workers, this can be even more dehumanizing, exposing more
of their bodies to these hazards, and even risking sexual harassment as they
undress to relieve themselves. Women in agricultural work are at increased
risk of uterine tract infections due to their exposure in the fields.
When workers suffer from injuries or health problems — dehydration,
cuts, broken limbs — they often find they are on their own, without
adequate medical care. When they seek out medical care, they pay out of
their own pockets. Rather than risk missing work and the income they
need to survive, many agricultural workers are forced to stay on the job
despite injuries.
These workers — largely immigrants - have suffered while toiling in
a multimillion-dollar industry that often uses their documentation status
as a tool to exploit and intimidate them. And, they’ve never been able to
seek out the best tool workers have to protect them; unions and
collective bargaining. Shockingly, under New York law, they were
forbidden from bargaining collectively and exercising the rights most
New Yorkers take for granted.
The RWDSU and a coalition including the NY AFL-CIO and others
fought hard to change that, and in 2019 secured the passage of the Farm
Laborers Fair Labor Practices Act, which finally gave countless farm and
agricultural workers the right to bargain collectively and create better
lives for themselves. And now, we are already seeing results.
A group of farm workers at Pindar Vineyards in Peconic, New York,
became the first farmworkers in the state to join a union when they
became members of RWDSU Local 338 in early October. Their historic
victory makes them the first group of agricultural workers to win a union
voice so they can negotiate a contract that will ensure better pay and
working conditions. These workers — who reported discrimination while
being treated far worse than the retail “tasting staff”- have seized the
opportunity to change their jobs and their lives by joining the RWDSU.
Countless farm workers in New York can look to this worker victory
as an inspiration and the first step toward changing their own lives. With
the labor movement at their side, New York’s farm workers can finally
exercise their right to join a union, and claim dignity, respect, and a voice
on a job. By bargaining collectively, they can begin to
address they many issues they face at work.
New York’s agricultural workers are entering
a new era, and the RWDSU will be with them
every step of the way. Fighting back against
exploitation and mistreatment with the power
of collective bargaining starts now.
www.rwdsu.org
2021
THANK YOU
FOR VOTING US
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Schneps Media October 14, 2021 13
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