[Interesting and important report by Margaret Gray on farmworkers in New York and the need for greater labor protections. Story below as reported in the New York Times, and the full report can be downloaded at the following link: http://events.adelphi.edu/news/farmworkers/ ]

Study Finds Farmworkers Unaware of Job Protections
October 24, 2007
LISA W. FODERARO, New York Times

Farmworkers in the Hudson Valley toil long hours for little pay and are largely unaware of the few protections and services available to them, according to a report released yesterday by researchers at Adelphi University and Bard College.

The report, a portrait of the state’s agricultural work force, claims to be the first such study in three decades. It describes a substantial shift in the racial and ethnic makeup of farmworkers in the Hudson Valley since the 1980s, from mostly black to predominantly Hispanic.


Of the 113 workers interviewed for the study, 90 percent were foreign-born and 78 percent were from Latin America, the report said. In addition, 71 percent were illegal immigrants, while 21 percent were in a federal guest worker program.

While the immigrant farmworkers who were interviewed were paid more than the minimum wage, they sent home, on average, $513 a month to family members in other countries, or about half the average monthly take-home pay, according to the report.

The annual income from Hudson Valley farm work reported by the workers averaged $6,643. Just over a third of the workers reported wages from other sources, bringing the average annual income to $8,078.
“This very low annual income places these farmworkers well below the official poverty line for the U.S.,” the report said.

The study, called “The Hudson Valley Farmworker Report: Understanding the Needs and Aspirations of a Voiceless Population,” was led by Margaret Gray, an assistant professor of political science at Adelphi.
The interviews were conducted in 2002 by Dr. Gray and students from the Bard College Migrant Labor Project.

The report was delayed in part by a grower’s complaint about Dr. Gray’s research. Since her doctoral dissertation included some of the research material, the grower tried to block her doctorate as well, she said.

Dr. Gray said the 78-page report was inspired by continuing debate in Albany about the state’s farmworker labor laws. She said farmworkers in the state and nation generally did not have as much legal protection as other workers. Most workers, whether illegal immigrants or citizens, are entitled to overtime pay, a day of rest and collective bargaining protections, whereas farmworkers are not, she said.

“The inclusion of farmworkers in New York’s labor laws is necessary for all farmworkers, citizen or not,” Dr. Gray said. “Labor protections would offer workers more economic security and safe avenues to address their concerns. It is a travesty that they are denied the opportunities and protections that most nonagricultural U.S. workers enjoy.”

Eighty percent of the farmworkers interviewed said their employers did not speak their language, and 56 percent said they were unaware of the laws that did relate to them, like the right to safe housing and transportation and protections against pesticides.

Dr. Gray said that she interviewed one worker in a new two-bedroom trailer he shared with two others, and that he said he would not change anything about the housing.

When she turned off the tape recorder, she said, the worker confided that the trailer lacked beds and that they slept on the floor. “Even when workers had poor housing, they didn’t complain about it,” Dr. Gray said. “The vulnerability is further exacerbated because the workers fear deportation and job loss.”

In accepting their working conditions, the workers compare themselves to their peers at home instead of to other American workers. In addition, most said they planned to return home some day, plans that can inhibit their “desire to improve their situations in the U.S.,” the report said.

The State Assembly has passed an omnibus bill to provide farmworkers with the same rights as most other workers, but it has remained in committee in the Senate.

In recent years, farmworkers have taken steps to demand the same kind of benefits and protections that exist in other industries, like improved workers’ compensation coverage and at least one day off a week. State and federal labor laws, dating back to the 1930s, have regularly omitted farmworkers from such guarantees, mostly because of lobbying by the agriculture industry.

Farmers argue that because of the number of job safety regulations, their workers actually have more legal protections than workers in other businesses. “There are many laws,” Dr. Gray said, “but the fact that they don’t have a right to overtime pay or a day of rest or collective bargaining is quite significant.”