The New York Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the state of New York and Gov. Andrew Cuomo Tuesday challenging the exclusion of farmworkers from the right to organize.
The suit yielded swift response from Cuomo, who released a statement hours later essentially agreeing with the NYCLU and stating his administration would not defend the lawsuit in court.
The complaint was filed in state Supreme Court in Albany on behalf of Crispin Hernandez, a farmworker who the suit claims was fired from a dairy farm in the North Country after he tried to convene a worker”™s committee to discuss conditions. Hernandez lost both his job and his home.
The suit does not name the farm as a defendant, instead focusing on the state. It claims that by not allowing farmworkers to organize, New York is violating a section of the state constitution that guarantees employees the right to organize without limitation to industry.
“It”™s a shame for New York that in 2016, a holdover, racist policy from the Jim Crow era prevents farmworkers from organizing to improve their brutal work conditions,” said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. “Enough is enough. Farmworkers who we depend on to put food on our tables deserve no less dignity and humanity than any other hardworking New Yorker.”
The suit dives into the historical background of the “holdover”¦ Jim Crow era” policy Lieberman refers to. The exclusion for farmworkers dates back to racism against black farmworkers in the south in the 1930’s, the lawsuit says. That was when the National Labor Relations Act passed and guaranteed private employees the right to organize, with the exception for farmworkers. Leaving farmworkers out helped get the law approved by southern politicians at the time, according to the suit.
In 1938, New York amended its constitution to expand the rights of all workers to collectively bargain, which the suit argues should provide legal rights to farmworkers.
“Because of a flaw in the state labor relations act, farm workers are not afforded the right to organize without fear of retaliation ”“ which is unacceptable, and appears to violate the New York State Constitution,” Cuomo said in his statement. “We will not tolerate the abuse or exploitation of workers in any industry. This clear and undeniable injustice must be corrected.”
A bill that would eliminate the exception for farmworkers has been introduced in the state Legislature, but is still in committee. Farmworkers are included, however, in a minimum wage increase approved by state lawmakers earlier this year. Farm owners are expected to receive credits to ease the impact of the tax hike.
The New York Farm Bureau, a lobbying trade group representing New York farmers, said in a statement Tuesday it could not yet comment on the specifics of the lawsuit, but argued against collective bargaining for farmworkers.
“The right to organize is a labor union tactic that may work in a factory setting, but not on a farm where the planting and harvesting of crops and the milking of cows are extremely time sensitive and weather-dependent,” the group said. “For a farm to lose employees to an untimely walk-off of the job could jeopardize a season’s crop and place livestock health at risk.”
The Farm Bureau also called Cuomo’s decision not to defend the lawsuit “an affront to agriculture and good farmers across the state.”
The NYCLU filed the lawsuit on behalf of two workers”™ groups: the Workers”™ Center of Central New York, in Syracuse, and Worker Justice Center of New York, which has offices in Kingston, Rochester and Albany.
Here’s the full complaint:
