Farm Bureau picks up fight to keep workers out of unions

By JOE MAHONEY

June 21, 2016

ALBANY — A battle over whether farmworkers have the right to unionize is pitting agricultural leaders against a civil-liberties group and the state.

"If we can't count on our state leaders to do the right thing in this case, we are prepared to stand up for our members in court to protect their rights," said New York Farm Bureau President Dean Norton.

The farmers group filed court papers Monday to defend a law that exempts agricultural workers from collective-bargaining protections.

Advocates for the state's 60,000 farmworkers have tried for years to convince the legislature to grant bargaining rights, alleging that many endure grueling conditions. But lawmakers have left the exemption in place, prompting a lawsuit by the New York Civil Liberties Union.

When state laws are challenged, the attorney general and governor's legal counsel usually step up to defend them. But Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared he would not contest the case. He called the state labor relations act flawed and echoed the arguments of advocates for the farmworkers.

"We will not tolerate the abuse or exploitation of workers in any industry," he said. "This clear and undeniable injustice must be corrected."

Farm Bureau leaders said they are disappointed, especially on the heels of Cuomo's push for a statewide $15-per-hour minimum wage.

They said the exemption is needed because farms could be financially crippled if unionized workers strike at harvest time.

"It's just mind boggling that our state officials are not defending the state law, and so we've been sucked into the vacuum," said Jim Bittner, owner of Bittner-Singer Orchards in Appleton, Niagara County.

Bittner said Cuomo wants to do away with the exemption because it "satisfies his downstate supporters."

The Civil Liberties Union sued in State Supreme Court on behalf of a worker who claims he was fired from a Lowville farm after speaking to a labor activist.

"By failing to extend to farmworkers necessary legal protections for organizing and collective bargaining that are extended to virtually everyone else, the state perpetuates farmworkers' isolation and economic exploitation," the lawsuit says.

Erin Beth Harrist, senior staff attorney for the group, said it's time that New York's collective-bargaining exemption for farmworkers be put out to pasture.

"We reject the Farm Bureau's continued assertions that this racist, holdover policy from Jim Crow has any place in New York today," she said.

A Cuomo aide said the governor has been a strong advocate for farmers and has initiated several programs to strengthen farms in the state.