Farmworkers seek law's protection

"We've been walking for nine days and our feet hurt, but this will not stop us now!"

That's how Bill Abom described the 180-mile walk he made last week with hundreds of farmworkers from Seneca Falls to Albany. He works for Rural and Migrant Ministry in Brockport, and organized the eastward trek. Another group marched from New York City north to the Capitol.

The march was staged on behalf of the thousands of families and individuals who work on farms each year, harvesting fruits, vegetables and dairy products. They were marching for what other workers in New York already enjoy: a day of rest from their labors, overtime pay when applicable, disability insurance and the right to bargain collectively with their employers.

On the way

Beginning on April 21, farmworkers from western New York left Seneca Falls for ten days of hard walking. Along the way, they were met with mostly positive support.

"We'd get a lot of cars honking their horns in support of the walk," said Jill McGee, a dairy farmworker from Niagara City and the single mother of two.

Her son Jeff, 11, walked the entire 180 miles. He said he felt pretty good, but he admitted his feet hurt. "I guess I'm a little tired," he said.

Stop-over

The group arrived in Albany on April 29, spent the night at Our Lady of Angels Church and marched to the Capitol the next day. A prayer service at St. Patrick's Church sent them on their way.

Janet Chavez, 18, said, "I came to make a statement about the way farmworkers are treated by the state of New York.

The high school student from Appleton, a tiny town "just outside of Buffalo," said both of her parents are farmworkers.

"Our family income is low," she said. "We have limited healthcare. I would like to see that change."

Seeking justice

At the prayer service, Salvador Solis spoke to the group through an interpreter. He has been a farmworker in New York for the past 18 years. Before that, he was a farmworker in Mexico.

"We have walked these past ten days for justice and respect," he said. "We do this because we think that, after 70 years, it is enough. We are people like everyone else. We get up every day at 5 a.m. and harvest apples, cabbage, cucumbers, potatoes, squash. We milk cows.

"We have no overtime rights, no collective bargaining protection and no day of rest. We do not get vacations. My question is, 'Why is this so? Why do other workers have these [benefits] and we do not?' We contribute to the process of feeding the world. We are people, too."

Change in law

The marchers visited Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno's office to demand that he call for the passage of the Farmworker Fair Labor Practices Act. It has been passed by the State Assembly in the last two sessions but has failed in the Senate.

The bill would:

* require employers of farm laborers to allow at least 24 consecutive hours of rest each week;

* provide for an eight-hour workday for farm laborers;

* require overtime at one-and-a-half times the normal rate;

* grant collective bargaining rights to farm laborers;

* ensure that the sanitary code applies to all farm and food processing labor camps intended to house migrant workers; and

* require reporting of on-the-job injuries and that farm owners provide workers with claim forms for worker's compensation.

(5/8/03) [[In-content Ad]]