Migrant workers' rights at issue

The legislative agenda for this year's Farmworkers Advocacy Day includes initiatives that would require farm owners to provide workers with access to toilets while in the field, grant farmworkers the federal minimum wage, give them the right to a day of rest each week, and allow them the right to organize and to bargain collectively.

"Legislation has been formulated to end the exclusion of farmworkers from the laws that protect other workers," said Barbara DiTommaso, director of the Commission on Peace and Justice for the Albany Diocese. "Other businesses and industry are required to do these things as the cost of doing business in New York State."

Church issue

She also said that Catholics should be particularly concerned by the conditions of farmworkers.

"I think more of a concern is the faith and moral aspect," she said. "This is our Church's teaching on faith and human rights. People are entitled to these things simply because they are human beings. If your faith doesn't make any difference when it comes to economic problems and how people are treated, then does it make any difference at all? Jesus said to treat others the way you want to be treated yourself."

Assembly action

Other bills that require action in both houses of the State Legislature are field sanitation legislation that would require all farms to provide access to toilets during the workday (currently, only farms employing 11 or more field workers must provide toilets), and legislation that would grant farmworkers a day of rest.

The toilet issue is one that many people can rally behind, Ms. DiTommaso said. "It's a question of human dignity to use the field to urinate or defecate," she said. "It's also a consumer safety issue. It's a question of food contamination."

Contamination

"Federal law requires farmers with more than 11 employees to provide access to toilets," he said, "On smaller farms, farmworkers often use the same toilet as the farmer. What farmer wouldn't have access to the john, a port-a john in the field or use of the house?"

Mr. Sawyer said not providing access to toilets would cause problems with the quality of the harvest.

Despite that, Ms. DiTommaso said there are still farmers who don't provide access. "I know from talking with farmworkers who have no access," she said.

Opposition

The Bureau opposes an increase in the minimum wage for farmworkers, Mr. Sawyer explained, because farmworkers are paid a per-piece wage based on the total pounds harvested. Some farmworkers can make $10 to $12 an hour with this piece wage.

"Minimum wage would reduce their wage," he said. "It's the choice of the harvester. The average farmworker makes $7.50 an hour in the northeast, according to the USDA [Department of Agriculture]."

Ms. DiTommaso said the minimum wage would serve as a the lowest amount a farmworker could be paid. "The fact that there is a minimum wage for other industries doesn't mean that everyone is paid that wage," she explained. "It simply puts a floor [on the amount they can be paid]."

Day of rest

"I don't think they will take [a day of rest]," he said. "They come here to work. If they don't work, they don't get paid."

Ms. DiTommaso counters that the bill would make the day of rest optional for the employee. A rainy day, when crops can't be harvested, or crop conditions could determine the day of rest, she said.

More than migrants

"People know local onions, potatoes, apples and carrots are coming into stores all year long," she said. "People are doing it."

Those workers could benefit most from the right to collective bargaining, she said. "If their rights were guaranteed by law, more of them could choose to stay, and this would help them break out of the cycle of poverty they are caught in," she said.

Short-term stay

He also questioned the working conditions of the farmworkers, saying that he would like concrete examples of the alleged poor conditions of farmworkers in the state.

"We have farmers who have the same workers each season," he said. "If they're not being treated well, why do they go back?"

Ms. DiTommaso agreed that there are employers who treat farmworkers well. "It's like any industry," she said. "There are some who don't care about their workers and those who do. [These efforts] are for the people who won't do this out of their own good will or conscience. This movement supports good employers. They are being undercut by those who aren't."

(Farmworker Advocacy Day will be held April 28, 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. It will include legislative visits, a procession, a prayer vigil led by Bishop Howard J. Hubbard and a rally. To register, call Barbara DiTommaso at 453-6695.)

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