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Legislature Re-Introducing Labor Bill

Statement from Dean Norton, president of New York Farm Bureau on the Reintroduction of the Omnibus Farmworker Labor Bill:

Farmers across New York let out a collective groan this week, when it was learned that another Omnibus Farm Worker Mandate Bill was re-introduced in the state Legislature.

Sponsored by Senate Labor Chairman Senator Onorato and several representatives from downstate, the bill illustrates yet again the vast gulf between the people who produce our food and the people who consume it.

The bill is almost exactly the same as the onerous mandates proposed in the version that was defeated less than a month ago, and continues to show a stunning lack of information about how food is grown and the extensive state and federal regulatory framework that ensures that the workers who plant and harvest, alongside the farmers, are treated fairly and compensated well for their work.

"Be assured that the farm families of New York Farm Bureau will fight this bill with the same vigor we fought and defeated the last one," said Dean Norton, President of New York Farm Bureau.

"At a time when our state is in the middle of a fiscal crisis, when there are a million electric customers who are more than 60 days behind in paying their bills, some legislators are more interested in putting yet another industry out of business in New York State."

"This bill is a distraction from other real work for both legislators and farmers. Legislators need to adopt a state budget; farmers need to plant their crops so we will have local food for local people throughout the next harvest season."

"This simply shows a reckless disregard for the upstate rural economy, at a time when all New Yorkers are concerned about making ends meet and feeding their families in today's uncertain economy."

"This bill simply fails to recognize that if we want to continue to have local food produced, we have to recognize that farming is not like manufacturing a widget, while we wish we could tell a cow not to require milking on a Sunday, or the sun to keep shining so the crops can be picked only from 9 to 5, that just doesn't happen."