If
the New York State Senate were not in chaos, it would be considering
a bill that would rectify in small measure the imposition of second-class
status on farm workers that was perpetrated in America
some 75 years ago. They’re
not the only workers to have been left out of the Wagner Act, to
be sure, but they were the most negatively affected and have lived
with it for seven decades. Their families and communities have suffered.
When
the labor law was passed three generations ago in the administration
of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the agribusiness lobby was so powerful
that FDR was forced to negotiate with those interests to get the
right to unionize for the millions of workers in the industrial
sector - auto, mining, glass, rubber, steel - when the U.S. still
had a vibrant industrial sector. The president at that time, in
the middle of the Great Depression, capitulated to the giant farming
interests, wrongly thinking that he could include farm workers and
the others in a year or two. That capitulation cost millions of
workers untold misery and a place among workers at the end of the
line.
This
year, it’s nearly 75 years later and the right to be covered by
a humane labor law and the right to join unions is yet to be realized.
There are a few states where some farm workers have unionized -
California, for one -
but most farm workers are still waiting to be included in the ranks
of workers who have rights.
Even
in California, the agribusiness interests are so powerful that the
late Cesar Chavez, founding president of the United Farm Workers
union, once half-jokingly commented that, because of the power of
the growers in the halls of the legislature in Sacramento, it might
be worth scrapping that progressive (if it were enforced) state
labor law and starting over again.
The
business interests in New York State are no slouches in the legislature
in Albany, either. It has
been as difficult for workers to get any labor law reform in New York as it has been for farm workers to get
fundamental rights in the workplace. Their lobbyists work overtime,
warning about “collapse” and “the end of (you pick the subject)
as we know it.” So far, it has worked. Their think tanks work overtime,
pumping out the propaganda and spinning labor and economic statistics
to show that any advance for workers will bring something to an
end - usually the economy, sometimes, though, civilization, itself.
This
year, however, until the New York Senate recently engaged in a palace
coup involving all of the Republicans and one Democrat, who promised
“reform” and declared themselves kings of the Senate, there was
a bill that would at least give farm workers in New York some rights,
S.5212. For about two weeks, that bill and hundreds of others have
languished in locked drawers in the chamber and, since no one was
the clear leader, no work has been done. The governor this week
announced that he would call them into special session every day
until they do their work and a judge was to preside over the body
(no pun intended).
The
bill would, among other things, provide a defined work week, overtime
pay, and a day of rest for those who work on the farms. The outcry
from the giant farm lobby has been great, but what one would have
expected. The farmers, who fear yet another expense, have been stirred
up. This, they say, would be added to their growing debt.
Dairy
farmers, for example, are being paid less than half what it costs
to produce their milk. That’s not just New
York, but in all of the dairy states. Some 20,000 small-to-medium
family farms are threatened nationwide with sale or foreclosure,
if the prices continue to be as bad as they have been in recent
months. This is a recurring theme in American agriculture.
It’s
easy to see why there is hysteria among small farmers about the
bill, if they hire even one worker. Many, though they are on the
edge of exhaustion, do all of the work themselves - and they’re
still losing ground every month. These are people - both farmers
and farm workers - who actually produce something of value and they
are at the tail end of the nation’s economy. It’s all part of the
cheap-food policy of the federal government. If you don’t think
Americans are the beneficiaries of a cheap-food policy, take a look
at the percentage of income that is spent on food in the U.S.
and compare it with the percentage in other countries, rich or poor.
The
only ones who are surviving well in the agricultural sector are
the investors, who own large parts of industrial farming, as well
as the giants in agribusiness which are vertically and horizontally
integrated. Ever wonder why big tobacco companies own food conglomerates?
That’s where the money is.
All
of that income is based on cheap labor - low wages for farm workers
and low incomes for family farmers. It’s the same in the U.S.
factories that still exist and it’s the case in Rural America. As
long as all of them do their work without asking for just pay and
decent working conditions, the cheap food keeps flowing into the
supermarkets and fast food emporiums.
Control
of everything farmers produce is complicated by federal and state
regulations, but, under it all, is the aim to pay as little as possible.
Prices paid to farmers are fixed by powerful agricultural corporations
and financial, investment, and banking interests. That’s what we’ve
had for 75 years. Periodically, farmers rebel, in a manner of speaking,
and the powers-that-be give them a few pennies to keep them quiet
for a short while.
Farm
workers have few advocates and little voice. If they had been included
in the labor laws of the 1930s, we would not be having the conversation
about the threat to modern agriculture represented by a law that
gives farm workers their just rights. America long ago would have
adjusted to full rights for such workers.
The
demise of family farmers (especially dairy farmers) is a real possibility,
but it too would be a non-issue if they received a just price for
what they produce. A just price for farm produce would include,
after seven decades, fair wages and benefits for both the farm workers
and the farm families, themselves. It’s not too much to ask, but
that’s hard for farmers to see and they, too, need to fight for
a fair price.
They
have been told for generations that their interests are the same
as those of Cargill and ConAgra, Archer Daniels Midland, Monsanto,
and Perdue Chicken. They have virtually nothing in common with them,
but most believe what they’re told.
And
small business owners have been led to believe that their interests
are the same as those of General Electric, Dow Chemical, General
Motors, Wal-Mart, Exxon Mobil, or Microsoft.
Not
to be left out are the workers who believe that their interests
are the same as their employers’ interests and would vote against
a union and their rights on the job in an instant. They are in the
minority of workers, but fear keeps them in line.
After
all, the big boys are still in charge and, until workers, farmers,
and small business owners realize where their interests lie and
together stand up to demand change that will allow them to survive,
they will stay far back, at the very end of the line. Until then,
we will still be fighting the battle for the workers left out of
the Wagner Act in the mid-1930s. We should be well beyond that battle
of our grandfathers and on to the problems of the present.
Whether
the New York Senate is functional or not, neither S.5212 nor the
“debate” about whether farm workers should be brought up to equality
with other workers would be necessary, if they had been included
in the law during the last time the country was undergoing profound
economic upheaval. In New York, a state considered to be progressive and which has a relatively
high rate of unionization, it’s embarrassing to be having such a
debate.
BlackCommentator.com Columnist, John Funiciello, is a labor organizer and former union organizer.
His union work started when he became a local president of The Newspaper
Guild in the early 1970s. He was a reporter for 14 years for newspapers
in New York State.
In addition to labor work, he is organizing family farmers as they
struggle to stay on the land under enormous pressure from factory
food producers and land developers. Click here
to contact Mr. Funiciello. |