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Hearings scheduled on proposal regarding labor rules for farmworkers

The New York state Capitol building in Albany.
File photo
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WXXI News
The New York state Capitol building in Albany.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP)  New York state lawmakers will hold hearings on a proposal to repeal an 80-year-old law that prevents farmworkers in the state from unionizing.

The proposal has long languished in Albany, but supporters are more hopeful now that Democrats control the entire Legislature.

New York's Senate is planning three days of hearings on legislation named the Farmworker Fair Labor Practice Act, which would grant farmworkers the right to organize to demand better wages or conditions.

The first is scheduled for Thursday in Morrisville in central New York, with a second on Friday on Long Island and the final hearing on May 2 in Sullivan County in the Catskills.

Farmworkers have long wanted to eliminate the state labor law that forbids them from unionizing, saying they deserve the same right to collectively bargain given to other workers.

The Act would also extend disability and worker compensation benefits to farmworkers, allow agricultural laborers at least one day off a week and require employers to pay overtime when a laborer works more than eight hours a day or 40 hours a week.

"In New York, there is a Jim Crow-era law still on our books that denies human beings — mostly black and Latino taxpaying New Yorkers — parity with nearly every other worker in this state," said Senator Jessica Ramos, D-Queens and the Senate sponsor of the bill.

Many farmworkers and business groups oppose the act, saying it could devastate family farm owners who can't afford higher wages or the strikes that could result from its passage.

The group Unshackle Upstate, a business-friendly group, calls the act "devastating" and notes that the state's farms support nearly 200,000 jobs.

"Legislators should focus on ways to help family farms grow and succeed instead of imposing additional burdens on these important businesses," said Executive Director Michael Kracker.

The act hasn't been scheduled for a vote in either the Senate or the Assembly, but supporters say they hope to make the bill a priority before lawmakers adjourn for the year in late June.

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