Heavy rains have ruined tons of onions in Orange County”™s Black Dirt region and in the process washed away revenue needed to pay bills due on mortgages, fertilizer, pesticides and farm equipment.
Farmers are now fearful of another storm brewing ”“ proposed legislation that would impose additional labor costs on them.
While New York state has asked the federal government to designate the Black Dirt region a disaster area, it does not mean financial salvation for farmers, said Chris Pawelski, the third generation of his family to harvest onions.
“All that does is offer no- or low-interest loans that will only compound the financial setbacks we are already trying to cope with. Most of us are maxed out ”“ money is needed to improve drainage; why can”™t they pay farmers who lose their crops a subsidy rather than offering to loan them money many cannot afford to borrow or repay?”
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Just as discouraging to the farmers are two bills being proposed in the state Legislature by Sen. George Onorato (D-Long Island City) to amend labor law, which now exempts farmers, so as to give farm workers one day of rest each week, mandating the use of farm worker labor agreements, giving them the power of collective bargaining and requiring an overtime rate of pay for days when more than eight hours are worked.
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According to Pawelski, state farm workers typically earn $11 an hour, receive free housing, heat, electric, as well as satellite or cable service. Health services and day care are provided for free, as are migrant education programs and government-funded lawyers who work solely on migrant farmers”™ behalf.
“How many workers at that same wage tier receive these services at no charge?” Pawelski asked.
He takes exception with politicians whose “own staffers are exempt from overtime pay or the number of hours they work each day; in essence, the very people who want to end our exemption have exempted their own all along. I don”™t think you can compare farming to an office job. The hypocrisy is astounding.”
Ending the overtime exemption for farmers would send them back to mono-cropping onions, rather than moving forward and diversifying crops to remain viable, Pawelski said. “You can kiss fresh local produce goodbye because New York state farmers will be unable to compete with New Jersey or Pennsylvania, whose farmers do not pay overtime.”
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Pawelski was heartened by a recent visit from U.S. Rep. John Hall”™s office. “Three of us met with Hall”™s staffers and took them to see the damage. They are going to be working on some crop insurance for us in the meantime, which will be a big help. We told them the onion losses are between 50 to 80 percent. It”™s devastating. It”™s so discouraging.”
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The New York state Farm Bureau strongly opposes Onorato”™s legislation, which has already passed the Assembly. Quoting from their written objection, “The overtime provision of this legislation … would put farmers in a precarious financial situation, and in the end would do little for the worker. Farms cannot raise wages to meet the cost structure of mandatory overtime, as farmers do not control the prices they receive for their farm products. The net effect (and unintended consequence) of this bill would be to decrease farm hours worked and increase reliance on family or other part-time help in order to circumvent overtime laws. Obviously, this would not be beneficial to farmers or farm workers.”
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Farmers work alongside their seasonal employers and take as much advantage of daylight hours as possible. Last week, Pawelski and his family, along with migrant workers, were working alongside each other to get the onions out of the fields before the next predicted storm. “You don”™t sit around on a sunny day or play golf,” Pawelski said. “There are some days, especially this season, where we all sat indoors and watched the rain wash all our crops away. Nobody was working and we were all ”˜resting.”™Â Is that considered a day off?” Farm work ”“ planting, cultivating, spraying, irrigating, harvesting and packaging ”“ does not happen like clockwork, Pawelski said. As far as Pawelski is concerned, he”™s “insulted by politicians who know nothing of farming but enjoy the fruits of our labor….and then want to regulate it.”
