ALBANY – The New York Farm Bureau is putting itself in the middle of a lawsuit that would give collective bargaining rights to farmworkers.
The organization is currently awaiting word from the state Supreme Court on whether or not it will be allowed to intervene in a farm labor lawsuit that’s been filed against the State of New York and Gov. Andrew Cuomo by the New York Civil Liberties Union Foundation.
According to the New York Farm Bureau, collective bargaining rights – combined with high taxes, stiff state regulations, and a minimum wage increase – would “make the continued operation of many family farms untenable.”
The NYFB, representing more than 60,000 farmers statewide, petitioned the court back in June with hopes of ultimately having the lawsuit dismissed.
In a statement opposing the lawsuit, the NYFB, which is backed by local members of the Chenango County Farm Bureau, said their aim is to defend farmers “who feel they have been abandoned by the governor and the New York attorney general.”
“Farmers, who we have always contended are tied to the land, are now seriously investigating moving their businesses out of state and closing their doors,” the statement reads.
Last year, the Chenango County Farm Bureau vowed to stay involved in New York State labor disputes, including the minimum wage law as well as a proposal that challenges the viability of migrant workers. CCFB President Bradd Vickers said such labor disputes don’t just affect the agricultural industry on a local and state level, but everyone who relies on it.
“It’s a matter of national security,” Vickers told CCFB members at the group’s annual meeting in November. “What’s more important than helping protect the people who produce our nation’s food supply?”
Both the governor and the state attorney general have championed for bargaining rights among farmworkers. But the NYFB believes it has the right to intervene in the lawsuit because the interest of its 28,000 members will not be represented by the defendants (the governor and the attorney general), and it says the ability of the organization’s members to produce food for New York residents would be harmed if the plaintiffs prevail.
“The state’s farm labor laws were enacted for one reason only. Rules meant to govern manufacturing simply don’t work on farms,” the NYFB wrote in a statement released in June. “If unionized farmworkers choose to walk off the job in the middle of harvest season or as the dairy cows need to be milked, what is the alternative for the farmer? They immediately run the risk of losing a season’s harvest or putting the health and safety of their animals in jeopardy.”
The Farm Bureau argues that the exemption of farmworkers from collective bargaining rights is constitutional, and that the exclusion of farmworkers from the State Labor Relations Act law is based on public policy outlined in the organization’s motions to intervene and to dismiss.