LIBERTY – Several supporters of a farmworkers rights bill before the state legislature rallied Saturday morning on North Main Street in the Village of Liberty. The gathering was organized by the Rural and Migrant Ministry and the Justice for Farmworkers Campaign.
Supporters hope the legislature will approve the proposal before they adjourn in mid-June.
“We need people to call their senators and assembly people every day to tell them to end the Jim Crowe farm law by giving farmworkers a day off, workers comp, overtime pay and all the other benefits every other salaried worker gets in the State of New York,” said Geoff Herzog, regional coordinator of the Rural and Migrant Ministry.
Sandy Oxford, executive director of the Hudson Valley Central Labor Council, said “this is a crucial time in the community.” She said the farm bureau has been of the “false opinion” that the proposed benefits “would crush agriculture.”
The farm worker fair labor practices act “will inject justice and dignity into the only group of workers in New York that who are not fully protected,” Oxford said.
